Aliens: Bane of the Reapers
by SomeGuyOverHere
Summary: The War with the Reapers has ended and in the few years that has passed since Shepard activated the Crucible ,the team that helped her, has split up to help their peoples in the effort. Ashley Williams, now a Spectre, is called on a mission, given a team, and sent to the Mars to fight a remnant of Cerberus. But Cerberus's greed has released a force even the Reapers once feared.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

**Release**

Citadel, Factory District

1 year after the Reaper War

Lieutenant Commander Ashley Williams stood crouched down behind a shipping container, hidden by the cover of the shadows. Sneaking wasn't exactly her forte, but after only a year of being a Spectre, she had learned that it had its uses.

Thankfully, the opposition she was currently facing wasn't exactly alert. She snuck a quick peek around the corner of her container and saw a group of miserable looking workers, human and alien alike, lifting large crates and moving them into a shady looking warehouse.

Overseeing them was a trio of guards dressed in dark blue armor with a white of paint drawn in artistic designs for decoration; Blue Suns, two human, one Batarian.

She ducked back behind her corner and pressed the contact button on the tactical com in her ear.

"Commander Bailey, do you read me?"

"I read you L.C, what's your status?" asked a rough elderly voice,

"The tip I got from that rat was spot on, if this isn't the Red Sand operation we're looking for, it's something just as crooked," she replied,

"Understood, do what you have to do to shut down the operation, as long as I can call the case closed, it's your call," replied the Commander.

"Copy that, call you back when it's over," just as the L.C ended her call, she heard footsteps. She whipped around just in time to see the Batarian guard coming around the corner.

His four eyes spotted her, "hey! Who the hell are-"

Before he could react she grabbed his rifle by the barrel and pulled his face into her fist. The blow staggered the mercenary long enough for her to deliver a knee to his belly, followed by an elbow to the back, causing him to fall to the ground and allow her to finish him with a boot the back of the head.

With the guard's head smashed against the pavement, Ash turned her attention to the remaining two, still chatting with each other while watching the workers.

Unholstering her M-5 Phalanx handgun from her hip, she quickly burst out from her cover and fired two shots in quick succession. Both guards caught a bullet between their eyes and died instantly. The workers immediately dropped their work, one of them dropped the box they were carrying and spilled out its contents: Red Sand.

Keeping her weapon up, she walked her way towards them.

"Please don't kill us," pleaded one of them,

"We'll see," she replied, turning to the entrance which was currently locked she asked, "can any of you get that door open?"

"Uh, I can," said one, a Turian. Ash nodded for him to do so, the Turian walked over to the door and pressed a few buttons on the electronic lock before the holographic symbol turned to an open green.

"Alright, you can all go now," she said, they quickly went, obviously not wanting to be caught in the crossfire of the inevitable fire fight.

Ashley walked up to the door, hid herself to the side, and pressed the button for open.

"Jones! What the hell was that noise, you better not be taking shots at the drones-", the man's sentence was suddenly cut off when Ashley put a bullet in the back of his knee. He screamed and would have fallen to the floor if she hadn't caught him from the back by his neck and forced him to stand up.

"What! Who the hell are you," growled the merc as she dragged him through the door.

Ashley didn't respond, instead opting to keep silent as she entered the main complex. It was a huge room, full of dozens upon dozens of crates, all most likely filled with illegal goods. It was also full of Blue Suns soldiers, a group of which immediately spotted her.

Making sure her meat shield was providing ample protection, she aimed her sidearm and opened fire. Two went down immediately, both taking two shots. The remaining three were lucky and dove for cover before returning fire.

Obviously they had no regard for their comrade's life, because his body was immediately riddled with bullets. Ashley managed to drop another soldier before dumping her human shield and rolling to cover behind a crate.

The element of surprise no longer on her side, she decided it was time to bring out the big guns. Holstering her Phalanx, she reached onto her back and brought out her Revenant Assault rifle. It was a big gun with fully automatic fire and 60 rounds of pure destruction.

The Spectre leaned out of cover and fired a quick suppressive burst. The rounds clipped one of the Suns while the other wisely ducked back down.

Another group of soldiers came down a ramp from the side to aid their allies. Ashley quickly squeezed out an expertly sustained stream of fire that tore through their incoming ranks. When she let go of the trigger, only three of the dozen that had come still remained. But that still left her with four healthy targets and one wounded.

She checked her Revenant, 20 rounds left.

The Suns returned fire and forced her to duck back.

"Keep her suppressed!" she heard one yell, "you two, flank that bitch!"

'Thanks for the heads up genius,' she thought to herself, moving to the other side of the crate she easily spotted the two flankers.

When it was safe, she popped up and sprayed them with automatic fire. Both dropped like rocks with their blood staining the ground.

Three more

Ejecting her thermal clip and slapping in a new one she took a quick peak over her cover. She saw that the remaining three were advancing on her position, the one at point was a Turian and was using what she recognized as tech armor.

No problem, she unclipped a frag grenade from her waist and tossed it perfectly at the Turian's feet.

"Oh shit!" she heard, followed by a loud explosion. Taking her chance, Ash burst out from cover to finish the survivors. The Turian had amazingly survived along with the human that had been trailing the back. The one in the middle was now a large stain and the remaining two were horribly disoriented.

She killed them both with a quick burst and moved on.

Going up the ramp that the Blue Suns reinforcements had come down, she found herself overlooking the rest of the warehouse.

Almost immediately she came under fire from the remaining mercenaries.

Ducking behind a stack of boxes, Ash put away her Revenant, exchanging it in favor of her Viper Sniper rifle. Leaning out she took quick aim and fired a few quick shots, each of which took down a hostile.

To her right she spotted a group of Suns attempting a flanking maneuver, but what really caught her attention was the Pyro in the back. A smile touched her lips as an idea came to her mind, taking careful aim she shot a round right into the Pyro's fuel tank.

The main instantly combusted into a ball of flames that rolled over the men surrounding him, taking care of the whole lot.

"God damn it she's tearing us apart! Bring in the mechs!"

Mechs?

Taking another peak out from her cover, Ash saw the remaining dozen or so Blue Suns retreat further into the maze of crates. A moment later she learned why.

A transport carrier hovering over the crates came up to the bottom of her ramp and dropped off something large and heavy, the object began to shift itself until it was finally in a more recognizable form. It was a YMIR Mech, heavy armor and a mechanical juggernaut.

"Oh boy," she muttered, these things were always a pain in the ass. But it was nothing she couldn't handle, using her Omni-tool, she switched her weapon's to use Disruptor Ammo.

Switching back to her Revenant, she burst out of cover just as the mech fired a rocket at the box of crates. The round exploded behind her, destroying the crates. As she ran, Ashley fired her weapon with the best accuracy that running could afford.

The electrically charged rounds struck the bone white machine but it still managed to turn to her and return fire. Its machine gun's rounds clipped her, but the damage was mostly absorbed by her shields, allowing her to find new cover behind a large crate.

Arming another grenade, she tossed it and landed the explosive just in front of the machine. The explosion temporarily stunned it, allowing for Ashley to pop out and spray a steady stream of bullets on the mech's central processor, or head.

Her rounds must have eventually hit home, because the robot gave a final jerk before toppling to the floor and exploding.

Breathing a harsh stream of air through her nose, Ashley moved a wayward strand of hair back into place and moved on.

( #%) (#*%&)(*#%& )#(&*%)( #*&%)(* #&%)& #)%& #%&) #%&)

Mars, Colony of New Hope

It had been only a year after the defeat of the Reapers, when the Human Spectre Shepard, had saved the entire Galaxy from a threat that many had believed to be just a fairytail. But despite all opposition and adversity, despite all the death and destruction, she had built the Crucible, she had united the races, and she had destroyed the Reapers.

Now, it was us to those that remained to rebuild from the ashes and restart. But with most of the Mass Relays still inoperable, it would be some time before the Galaxy was back to what it once was. Some of them had been repaired quickly due to being less damaged than others. Almost all planets had repaired the relays to the Citadel, but still, some worlds remained disconnected.

For this reason, Mars was used by the Alliance to house the refugees that could not remain on Earth. Thus, came the Colony of New Hope, appropriately named for being the first new colony established after the War.

As it would happen, the colony would flourish into something quite large for a place that had only been around for a little over twelve months. Even more, it would turn out that the colony had been built right above a horde of what is now known to be Reaper technology.

After experts verified that nothing in the cache was able to indoctrinate, it was cleared for studying by all races.

Of course, you cannot tell the world that you have a vault of gold and not expect thieves to try and steal it.

Alison held in her hand what she and the team had come to believe was the weapon wielded by one of the foot soldiers of the Reaper army known as a Cannibal. She had been prying into it with a set of tools ranging from a fine comb brush to a pair of tweezers, trying to figure out how it worked.

As best she could tell, the thing was to be grafted onto the soldier's arm surgically and would have been very hard to remove if could at all.

She sighed, such a fascinating piece of equipment. This was why she loved her job so much, this was why she was willing to put up with having to work 100ft beneath the surface of the planet, this was why she put up with working in these strange maze like, ribbed tunnels that the Reapers for whatever reason had decided to hide their technology in.

For the seventh time that day, she examined their surroundings. It was dark, save for the artificial light around them. But the tunnels were also humid and musty, in addition they were also incredibly large. Strangest of all, they looked like a across between something mechanical and something organic.

"Talk about commitment to your job," she said to herself,

"What was that?"

Alison turned to see her boss, Dr. Smith, standing next to her.

"Oh, nothing sir, just wondering," she replied, "this tech is just so fascinating"

"I suppose it is, I especially wonder what's behind that," she said, pointing to the object of her fascination: the vault.

The vault as it had been so cleverly named, was in essence a very large door protecting something, what they didn't know. All they did know was that the door so far had been resistant to any sort of opening method that they had tried. This involved hacking, electrical shocks, and explosives, nothing so far had been able to get the door opened.

But that was alright with Alison, because the door itself was fascinating. It was decorated with the strangest designs, what looked like the skull of something with an elongated head and a pair of vicious snappers was carved into the metal of the door. There was also something that looked akin to some sort of spider then below that was what looked like a weird pod type thing.

Most of the scientist believed it to be some sort of life stage drawing. Though Alison found it hard to believe that the reapers would be interested in something organic, after all didn't they want to destroy all that was organic?

A loud thundering sound echoed down the tunnel, dragging Alison from her thoughts.

"Ugh, did Thomas short out the laser drill again?" cried Dr. Smith, when no response came he sighed again and went up towards the source of the noise.

Alison shook her head with a small amount of amusement. That amusement was instantly banished when the sound of gunfire rattled through the tunnel.

Alison's eyes went back to the tunnel Dr. Smith came down and saw the man himself backing out of the tunnel, followed by a group of men clad in bone white armor. Dr. Smith looked like he was about to say something, whatever it was meant nothing as he was suddenly gunned down in cold blood.

Alison screamed as did many of her coworkers.

"Everybody settle down!" roared the lead man, firing his weapon into the air, "nobody does anything stupid and nobody dies!"

Everybody immediately quieted down, the men in white turned their attention to the vault. The one in charge walked right up to the door and took a moment to examine it. After a few seconds, the man's eyes finally rested on a single tile of the right side of the door.

With a small pop, his armored glove came off revealing his bare hand. Alison strained her eyes and much to her horror the man's hand was definitely not normal. It looked very much like the hand of those husks the Reapers had employed during their invasion on Earth. Pale, lifeless, and grafted with strange wire like veins.

He touched his mutated hand to a tile on the door and immediately the whole thing seemed to spring to life. The door began to slid itself out of the way with a loud groan, the tunnel itself reverberated with the motion.

If he was not wearing a helmet, it would be seen that the man was smiling. He then turned to his men and yelled, "Alright, let's move in. Delta team, stay out here and keep watch."

Four men took up position outside of the door while another four began to herd the scientists into a corner. The rest of them, a dozen or so men, entered the vault.

The inside of the vault was filled with what looked like some sort of artificial fog. In addition the ground was much more dank and carried with it a slight spongy quality to it.

"Sir!" said one of the soldiers, "I think I found something!"

The leader walked over to the soldier, to find him hovering over what looked to be like some large fleshy pod. Had he taken time to observe the Vault door more carefully, he would have seen that it resembled on of the carvings.

"What is it?" asked one soldier,

"Looks like some sort of…egg?" suggested another,

"Biological weapons?"

"It doesn't matter," said the leader, silencing his men, "pack it up and move it to the shuttle. I want everything and anything moved out of here in the next hour! It won't take long for the Alliance to notice the colony's communications system is down."

"Yes sir!" they all said,

"Uh, sir," said one wayward soldier, the leader turned to him, "I think we'll have to make multiple trips."

The whole team turned to see what the one soldier was seeing. The inside was much larger than they'd originally thought, it could have easily held a dozen Mako tanks. And spread out and covering the whole floor, were dozens upon dozens of pods.

The leader turned to two of his men, "get topside and tell them we need a couple extra bodies down here. Round up some colonists, we can use them to move these things."

"Yes sir," they both said, before jogging out.

"Ugh, nasty!" cried one of the men as he wiped some sort of viscous goo off his shoulder, "What is this crap?"

"Uh, hey, one of those pods just opened,"

"Did you touch it?"

"No! I just walked by it and-"

Their chatter was silenced when a low hiss suddenly permeated the air. All of the soldiers froze and raised their weapons.

"What was that?"

Silence hung in the air as nobody responded. For a long agonizing moment, no one moved, no one spoke, no one even breathed.

That silence was broken with a scream.

"Ahhhh! Get it off! Get it off! Get it off!" screamed one man before he was suddenly muffled,

"Hold still!" growled one of his comrades,

"There's something inside of these eggs!"

"What the hell is-AH!"

The leader himself was nearly incapacitated himself, but managed to put a few rounds in the spider before it latched onto his face. Another one jumped up at him, this time he was too slow to kill it but managed to throw up his arms to prevent it from reaching its goal.

He then quickly tossed it onto the ground and began to brutally stop on the creature till it stopped moving.

When he stopped, a sense of dread suddenly knotted his stomach as he felt some sort of presence looming over him. Slowly, he turned himself around and was confronted by a row of sharp silver teeth.

After that, there was only pain.

From outside of the vault, the screams carried all the way through the tunnels. That's when everyone knew that death had been released.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Meet the Team

Lieutenant Commander Ashley Williams woke slowly. At first all she wanted to do was stay in bed for a few more minutes, the sleepiness had not yet been let out of her head and he lids were still heavy. But eventually they wore off and her body began to urge her to wake.

When she finally felt like she could move without hating it, she sat up and stretched out her arms. She let out a small yawn before throwing her legs over the edge of the bed and standing up on the cold floor.

The quarters provided for her by the Alliance could be considered luxurious by many other soldiers. For one she didn't have to share it with anyone and the meals delivered were always warm. It was nice, still, like any other army girl, it made her a bit uneasy. She wasn't used to the kind of security that this place provided.

It also made her feel guilty, while she was here enjoying a comfortable bed, others didn't even have a blanket to cover themselves. A lot of people had lost everything during the Reaper invasion, not just material things either, but loved ones as well.

The human Spectre shook herself, no use thinking about it. She more a girl of action anyway. Dressed in nothing more than a grey tank top and her underwear, she headed for her own personal bathroom for a quick shower.

She quickly undressed and turned on the water, the hot water felt nice against her bare skin. She might have stayed a whole ten minutes if she hadn't forced herself not to overindulge. After the shower she dried herself and spent a few moments making sure she didn't look too horrible.

She didn't really care for her outer appearance, most of the time she was in a firefight, who cared what they looked like then? But she figured that she should at least look presentable for when she wasn't trying to drill a hole through someone's head 100 meters away.

Ashley then put on her usual clothing for when she was not in the field, a dark blue long sleeved shirt and a matching pair of formfitting blue pants with boots.

Just as she finished a knock came from her door. She opened the door and found a messenger waiting for her,

"Ma'am" said the messenger, a blonde woman, "Admiral Hackett has requested you presence in his office."

"Tell him I'll be there right away,"

The messenger saluted then took off down the hall.

Knowing she didn't have much time, Ash decided to have a quick breakfast. A chocolate power covered power bar and a glass of milk, when she was done she hurried out of her quarters and headed down to Admiral Hackett's office.

As she walked, Ashley stared out the giant glass window to her left that was put in substitution for a real wall. Before the invasion of the Reapers, it would have been an opportunity to see a breath taking view, now all it showed her was what remained.

It wasn't long before she reached the Admiral's office, the door slid open and revealed the man sitting at his desk looking over some files.

"Sir!" she said, snapping to a crisp salute,

"At ease L.C," he said, returning the salute, he then gestured to a chair, "take a seat."

She did.

"I imagine you're wondering why you're here," he began, folding his hands together, "now let me just say that I hate dragging good soldiers away from their shore leave, but I wouldn't be doing this if there were another option."

A mission, Ash had suspected as much, "Don't worry sir, I was getting bored sitting around anyway."

The Admiral gave her a weary chuckle, "We have a situation at the Mar's colony of New Hope,"

"What kind of situation?"

"Hostage," replied Hackett, "its Cerberus again or at least what's left of them."

"They never quit do they?" she mused, "how many hostages?"

"The whole colony,"

"What?!"

"I don't know how but they managed to sneak a frigate class ship through the relays. Its currently hovering just a thousand miles over the colony, we got a message from them. We make any moves, they blow the whole place."

Ashley took a moment to take the situation in, the she asked, "what about Shepard, have you contacted her yet? If there is Cerberus involved, she'd want to know."

"Unfortunately the Commander is currently unavailable, I'm not quite sure where she is right now but whatever she's doing must be important," explained Hackett, "no Williams, you're the best option I have right now. You're the second human to ever become a Spectre, that means you're the best fit for this mission."

Ashley smiled despite herself, it was kind of nice to hear such praise. She then nodded, "you can count on me sir,"

"Good," he said, returning the nod, standing up and walking around his desk, "briefing is at 1200 hours, conference room 112. I'll introduce you to your team."

"Team?" she asked, no sure she had heard the correct words.

"Team," he repeated, then exited the room. Leaving Ashley Williams, sitting on the chair, quite bewildered.

(#$*()&^#()$*&^()#$&*^)#($&*(&^#$&*()*&#$&*#^)()

Alison along with two others, a Krogan and a Turian rushed through the dark halls of the colony spaceport in hopes of finding transport of this forsaken planet.

Things had only gotten worse after the soldiers, who she know knew were Cerberus, had opened the vault. If this was anything it was that anything related to the Reapers was always trouble. Out of that place had come nightmares, things that dragged people off into the night and let loose bone chilling screams.

Her group had numbered two dozen just an hour ago, now it was just down to them. The Krogan was a colony security guard and had with him a shotgun and the Turian carried with him a sidearm, but Alison herself was not armed.

The Krogan, who was currently in the lead, held up a fist to signal a stop, he took a quick sniff of the air, then kept on moving. Before long they came to a door, unfortunately it was locked shut, most likely by some survivor who hoped to slow down their pursuers.

"Damn it!" growled the Krogan, slamming his fist on the door.

"Move," ordered Alison, "I might be able to hack into it."

The large alien did so and Alison began her work, though she was tired and scared she knew that if she didn't open this door it wouldn't matter.

A loud hiss echoed through the halls and she paused briefly, both Turian and Krogan turned down the hall and aimed their weapons.

Alison returned to her work with renewed vigor.

After a few seconds the Turian asked, "how's it coming?"

"Almost there, just have to-"

Another hiss, this one sounded much closer.

"Hurry!"

"I'm trying I'm trying!" she yelled,

That's when the shadows came to life, they came crawling on the walls, on the ceiling, on the floor. They came like a singular black tide that had come drown them.

The Krogan was the first to fire, his shotgun boomed and the black tide let out a yelp of pain. But still it came, flashing its silver teeth and letting loose its terrible hiss.

The Turian began to fire as well, there were more screeches as some of their shots hit home. But they could not stem the flow.

Alison felt herself panic as she desperately tried to override the lock.

"Come on, come on!" she begged,

"They're getting closer!" announced the Turian,

The Krogan was the first to lose his cool and he lost it in a typical Krogan fashion, by going completely berserk.

"You think you can kill me!" he growled, firing the last of his ammo, "I…AM…KROGAN!"

With a roar, he dropped his weapon and charge head first into the black tide, his dark green crest leading the way. He slammed into them while tossing out his elbows and stomping with his feet. For a moment it seemed that he would stand against them, but it was short lived.

Soon his momentum was lost and the creatures began to fight back. Their claws cut through his armor, their teeth bit into his tough skin, finally he was overwhelmed and lost under a black sea of limbs.

"Oh crap," cursed the Turian as he saw the Krogan go down.

At that moment, the door's lock turned green.

"I've got it!" announced Alison, unfortunately it did open for her, "damn it, its stuck!"

"Move!" ordered the Turian. He shoved his hand into the door's crook and pulled. His muscles strained as he slowly dragged it open, slowly but gradually paving the way for their salvation.

"There," he said, when he'd managed to pry it half way, "that should be good enough to-"

_HIIISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!_

The Turian's eyes went wide and though Alison couldn't see what was on the other side, she already knew.

Suddenly a dozen black limbs grabbed the Turian, he screamed and fired his pistol wildly in hopes of escape, "get off me! Get off of me!"

But it was useless, soon he was dragged through completely. The door slammed shut, leaving Alison alone with the black tide.

She turned to see them advancing upon her and screamed.

( #*&) (#*&^ ()#*&% )#*%&) #&%) #*&%() #&%() #*%&)

After her meeting with Admiral Hackett, Ashley had returned to her quarters to get herself a more decent breakfast. After that she'd spent a bit of time catching up with her sister, she was still in mourning over her lost husband and Ash felt obligated to be there for her.

She seemed better but still didn't feel like talking about her husband, something Ash respected. As a result, they spent half the time talking about her. Her sister had asked if Ash was hooking up with anyone herself.

Ash had immediately used the old, "I'm working most of the time" excuse, but that didn't work this time as her sister pointed out that Commander Shepard had found plenty of time for romance during her trips on the Normandy. That brought a smirk to Ashley's face.

As she walked down to the conference room, she began to wonder if she ever would find that special someone. She chuckled to herself, when had she ever thought about stupid stuff like this?

"Maybe I'll get lucky and meet him on this mission," she joked as she arrived at the conference room.

The room she entered was dimly lit and contained one large holo table in the center. Crowded around the table was Admiral Hackett along with a man she didn't recognize.

He was dark of skin, African American, and sprouted a bushy mustache on his upper lip and a military cap on his head. In addition she noted that he was vigorously chewing on a still smoking cigar.

Hackett was the first to notice Ashley's arrival, "Lieutenant Commander,"

"Sir!" she said, snapping a salute,

"At ease soldier, I'd like you to meet Sgt. Al Johnson,"

"Sergeant," she greeted, holding out her hand.

The Sergeant took the hand and firmly shook it, "ma'am, I usually like to be the ones giving orders to my team, but for this mission I'm handing command of my men over to you."

"Thank you Sergeant, I know that can't be easy for you,"

The Sergeant chuckled, "hell ma'am, don't worry about me, handing command over just mean I don't have to baby sit those thumbs suckers anymore."

Ash smiled at the joke then joined them at the holo table, "what am I dealing with Admiral?"

"As you know this is a very delicate situation. These Cerberus remnants have taken the entire colony of New Hope hostage," he started, the table turned on and projected a holographic image of a colony, "New Hope was a quick refugee center we set up on Mars. The entire colony is placed in a box canyon, we built it there to protect the refugees from Mar's winds and storms. Unfortunately Cerberus has used this to their advantage and is threatening to blow up everything if anyone interferes and blocked off the any entrance or escape."

"Bastards, their mothers are probably rolling in their graves," muttered Sgt. Johnson,

"Where's the ship?" asked Ash,

"Hovering a thousand feet over the colony with its guns pointed right at it," said Hackett, the table's holographic project expanded and showed the ship right where Hackett had said it was.

"What do those bastards want?" asked Johnson, "Cerberus are terrorists alright, but attacking this colony wouldn't do them any good."

"I'm afraid your right Sergeant," Hackett said gravely, "but just a month ago, the colonists found a system of underground tunnels right under the colony."

The projection shifted to show a nexus of tunnels dug underneath the colony's ground, with one massive chamber in the middle.

"Inside that central chamber, they found something else, Reaper technology,"

"Reaper Tech, you mean those flying butt ugly squids? Those Reapers?!" cried Johnson,

"I'm afraid so, but as far as our techs and experts could tell, none of it was capable of indoctrination. So it was decided by the Committee to study the technology and hope it would give us a latch key discovery."

"Cerberus must want to get their hands on that technology," realized Ashley, "but I don't understand, if this stuff was here wouldn't there have been security?"

"We didn't have the man power to up defenses and we figured that if we kept the discovery under wraps, no one would find it," explained Hackett, "unfortunately we were wrong."

"Bet they've still got someone in our system," quipped Johnson,

"I think you know what I'll be asking of you and , Lieutenant Commander Williams. That tech can't fall into Cerberus's hands,"

"I understand sir, but what about the colony?"

"I'm afraid command has ordered that the safety of the colony be considered as secondary to the tech,"

"What? Sir that's-"

"I know L.C, but we have orders," interrupted the Admiral, he then turned to the holo table again and tapped a button "you'll be leaving aboard the SSV Salem, she's a frigate class starship with stealth capabilities."

The table projected a holographic image of a starship, sleek and angular as were most Alliance ships.

You're first priority is to knock out the Cerberus ship over the colony. From there you must clear the colony of Cerberus forces, then secure the Reaper technology," continued the Admiral, "after that you may secure the hostages. How you play this is up to you, but you must keep that technology away from Cerberus at all costs."

Ashley winced, knowing that all costs meant even if she had to abandon the colonists, "yes sir."

( #%*&()*%& ()#*&%() #*%& ()#%&* #%&)(%&*)

1 day later

The SSV Salem came to a slow halt in Mars's atmosphere, its crew prepared for the mission ahead of them.

"Stealth systems are up and the Cerberus ship has shown no signs of activity, looks like we're in the green LC," said Captain Davos,

"Good," said Ashley, letting out a breath she'd been holding in, "so far so good, let's hope our luck lasts."

With that she turned and made her way to the briefing room.

When she arrived she found Sgt. Johnson already there, making sure that the projector for the room worked. He noticed her arrival and gave a quick informal salute, "ma'am"

"Sergeant," she responded with a nod,

"A bit of warning before hand ma'am," he said as he continued to work, "my team is a bit…strange."

"Strange?"

"I don't mean Turian Krogan baby mixed with a Vorcha strange," he clarified, "but they're good men and women, but you'll have to get used to them first. Chances are the first time you meet them you'll want to give them all a smack on the head. I know that's what I did."

"Don't worry Sergeant, I've worked with a Krogan Battle Master, a ship A.I in a synthetic body, and a Prothean, I think I'll be able to handle this,"

Johnson turned around and gave her a skeptical look, "who the hell was your Commander?"

"Commander Shepard,"

"Ah," he said, as though that explained everything.

A few minutes later, the team arrived. Ash gave them a quick look over, none of them seemed very strange, perhaps Johnson was just exaggerating.

"Alright! Time for some hazard pay!" yelled a tall dark skinned man with a bald head.

"I just hope I get to let Sasha have some fun," quipped an attractive red head woman of medium height, pale complexion, and a rather heavy British accent.

The next man to enter was bald and of Asian descent, he said nothing and simply walked to his seat with his arms crossed.

"Ya'll are way too excited for work," said the next man, a tad skinny with a buzzcut and goatee, using a heavy southern accent.

"Come on Rogers, lighten up," said the next man with tan skin.

"I hope there are plenty of enemies," said a man with a Russian accent and short brown hair, "then I can paint red square with blood."

"I am surrounded by idiots," said the next one, a woman with blonde hair.

"Hey I'm not an idiot," said the next one, a man with thick rimmed glasses.

"Ladies!" roared Johnson, everyone snapped to attention, "you are currently in the presence of a Spectre!"

He gestured to Ash, "I expect, that you will show her that we are exemplary soldiers, not the hopscotch paying, rope jumping little twit heads I know you all are!"

"Yes sir!" they all replied,

"Good, now sit your asses down before I decide they need the imprint of my boot!"

They all immediately did so, he then turned to Ashley, "ma'am, let me introduce you to the team."

He started with the left side of the row, where the first man who had walked in sat.

"This is Private First Class Augustus King, our demolition's expert," the man stood to his full height, at least 6'4 and held out his much larger hand to Ashley.

"Pleasure to meet you ma'am," he said politely,

Ashley took the hand, noticing that this soldier could have qualified to be a football quarter back with his enormous size. His arms were as thick as her legs, the biceps themselves looked like they could crush a person's head.

She then moved on to the next one.

"This is Private First Class Sybilla Octavia, our heavy weapons expert,"

"Pleasure," greeted the English woman,

Ashley took note that the woman would have turned quite a few heads in a crowd. Her face was nice and angular, her hair was short yet attractive, and her body had a desirable hourglass shape. It was a bit hard to believe that she was a heavy weapons expert.

Next one,

"This is Corporal Nathan Yahachi, he stabs people with his sword,"

The Asian man, just an inch over Ashley, held out a silent hand. When she took it, he uttered a single yet very clear word, "greetings"

The man made Ashley feel a bit uneasy, he just seemed a little other worldly. In fact, the entire time she was standing in front of him, she could have sworn that he hadn't blinked once. Still, he seemed very gentlemanly, a well shaved face, courteous manners, and a clean shaven head.

Moving on,

"This is Private Brian Rogers, he's our frontline support, the kind of guy you'd use for a meat shield,"

"Hey," he said in his southern accent, shaking her hand lightly,

Rogers seemed very much like the kind of soldier who had no desire to see battle. He looked like he'd much rather be somewhere else, such as home or at a bar.

The next man was of some Hispanic descent, he was quite handsome and had a set of perfectly white teeth. Ash had to admit, he was easy on the eyes. Plus he never stopped smiling, she always liked optimistic people.

"This is Private Rico Ross, tactical support,"

"Nice to meet you,"

The next man down was the one with the Russian accent, the way he smiled and stared at anyone made him look like a blood thirsty psychopath. Still, he seemed, somewhat sane.

"This is Private Dimitri Breznev, our medic, don't take it personally if it looks like he wants to eat you, he looks that way at everyone."

The next was the blonde woman, she wore her hair in a short ponytail and had a certain air around her that demanded everyone give her respect. Ashley immediately knew she wasn't going to get along with this one.

"This is Private Elena Adams, our team biotics user,"

"ma'am," she said, shaking Ash's hand.

The final man, the one with thick rimmed glasses, looked a bit out of place. His head was bald but was tattooed on the side and he carried a well-trimmed mustache on his lip. In truth he looked like he was a patch job of different personalities.

"And this is Private John Sanders, our Sniper, don't let his looks fool you, he's almost as good as I am,"

"Ma'am," he said, also shaking her hand.

"And finally we have…son of a bitch"

Ashley raised an eyebrow as Sgt. Johnson's face became one of pure anger.

"Where the hell is Cpl. Yun?" he demanded,

The entire team looked to their left, then their right and as expected, found no trace of this, Cpl. Yun.

"who?" asked Ashley,

"My second in command," explained Johnson, "I told him that…ugh, when I get my hands on him his arms will be so sore from pushup that he'll want them amputated!"

Ashley sighed, "Where's his room? I'll go get him,"

"That won't be necessary ma'am, I'll just send one of mine-"

"No Sergeant, if I'm going to be leading this mission, then I'll have to be the one to take care of Cpl. Yun's irresponsibility"

Johnson raised an eyebrow of his own, but eventually consented.

"He's on the crew quarters deck, room 103"

Ashley nodded and exited the room.

"So, who wants to make a bet on why Yun is late?" asked Rogers, "I say it's because he got himself a lady friend last night."

"Nah, guy probably just go drunk…again," said King,

"I say it's because of both" threw in Sybilla.

Johnson threw his face into his palm and shook his head, god help this mission.

( (#%*& (#*%& ()*#%&()*#%&() &*%) #&*%) &%)

It wasn't long before Ashley was on the crew deck and nearing Cpl. Yun's quarters. Since this was a Spec ops team, each member was given their own room.

As she neared Yun's, the door opened and a woman came out, she must have believed no one was around because she was still in the process of slipping her shirt over her head.

Ashley's eyes narrowed, she'd been pretty sure that Johnson had told her that Yun was a man and she doubted that he'd given her the wrong room number. As a result she allowed the woman to pass by without questioning.

She then walked up to room 103 and knocked loudly three times.

When there was no answer, she knocked again.

This time the door opened, revealing a tall man with perfectly tan skin and raven dark hair which had been cut to barely a centimeter thick save for a single wide strip of hair in the middle, creating a sort of Mohawk whose bangs reached down to his nose.

The man had his face turned down as he was currently rubbing his eyes, when he finished Ash got a good look at his face. He was handsome in a sort of roguish way. His face was covered in trimmed stubble, his jaw was angular, and his eyes were a shock blue.

She could also tell just by looking at him that he was most likely hung over. The two stared at each other for a long moment with neither speaking, until he finally said, "you aren't Sgt. Johnson"

Ashley shook herself, "uh…no, are you Cpl. Yun?"

The man took a quick sip from a bottle of beer he'd been holding, the replied, "call be Gabe"

"Gabe?"

"Well my full name is Gabriel but…I'm not sure why people decide to call me Gabe," he admitted, "anyway, who are you?"

"Lieutenant Commander Ashley Williams," she answered, "you're late for the mission briefing"

Yun raised an eyebrow and took another sip of beer, he then leaned against the frame of his door, looked down then back up, and decided, "You're hot"

It took a moment for Ash to register what he said, "what?"

"Yes, definitely one of the hottest women I have ever seen," he said, shamelessly dragging his vision up and down her body. He then pointed at her breasts, "are those real?"

Ash's response was to connect her fist with his face,

Yun recoiled in pain and held his most likely bruised cheek,

"Ow, okay, I probably deserved that" he admitted, before standing straight again, "but seriously, are they real? Because if not, then damn, you got some nice work done on yourself."

This time Ash stomped on his bare foot,

"Ow," he yelped again, he hopped on one foot a few times before recovering and saying, "so, I'm guessing they are real? Damn!"

Ash sighed, realizing that pain apparently wasn't a deterrent for this man.

"Hey maybe when this mission is over we can get a drink together," he suggested,

"Are you really going to just keep flirting with a superior officer?" she asked, "I could get you in a lot of trouble."

"Well when I see something I like, I go for it," he explained, giving her a quick wink,

"You're a pig,"

"Maybe, but I'm also a healthy man, I wouldn't mind you looking me over," he replied, finishing his beer, "go on, take a look."

Against her better judgment, Ash did spare a peek through the corner of her eye. Unfortunately for her, the man was only wearing a pair of tight boxers and his body was on the same end of the scale as his face, high.

She quickly turned away from him and held up her hand to block out any view, "put on some clothes, we can discuss your punishment later."

"Ooh, punishment, never heard that come on before," he said with anticipation before walking back into his room.

When the door closed, Ash immediately tried to cool her now blushing face. The man was physically attractive, she'd give him that, and he had that certain bad boy charm around him. She wasn't into that sort of man, but it didn't look like he was about to take a hint.

She decided that Cpl. Yun was definitely going to be trouble in the future.

The door hissed open and Cpl. Yun now stood completely clothed, Ash thanked god for that. But it was at this time that she noticed something especially peculiar.

Yun's top was sleeveless and gave her a good look at his arms. Both of them were prosthetics, they were very much like regular human arms, except they were painted a sleek black and resembled more the muscular structure of an arm than one with skin.

Yun gave his mechanical fingers a quick flexing before noticing that Ash was staring. That brought a cocky smirk to his face, "so you do like what you see."

His remark brought Ash out of her staring and she put a scowl on her lips, "let's go."

She heard Yun chuckle but also heard him follow after.

They didn't speak on the way back, but Ash could feel the man's gaze burning into her backside. She absolutely loathed men like this pig. She was slightly curious as to what happened to his arms but for the sake of not starting a conversation, she kept her questions to herself.

When they returned to the briefing room, they were greeted with many applause. The team welcomed Yun with teasing and congratulations of being late yet again.

"Yun!" roared Johnson Yun snapped to attention, "what do you have to say for yourself?!"

"Uh…that, in my defense, that engineering officer was an absolute animal," he replied with a grin,

Johnson sighed and squeezed the bridge of his nose with disgust, "go take your seat god damn it, I'll deal with you later."

Yun nodded, smiled, and took his seat.

Ashley quietly sighed, unbelievable.

"Alright," she started, "as you may be aware, the colony of New Hope, is currently in a hostage situation. Cerberus, is threatening to destroy the whole place if the Alliance or anyone else makes a move against them. So, that's where we come in."

"Yeah it is!" howled King,

Ashley turned to Johnson and gestured for him to turn on the screen. He did so, allowing the screen to project the image of the Cerberus ship, a Frigate that seemed very much like the Normandy. Not unexpected, considering that the Illusive man had spent much money rebuilding the original Normandy.

"This is our first target," she explained, "the Cerberus frigate. As long as this thing is in the air, anything we do on the ground won't matter. So, we're going to put it out of commission."

King rose one massive hand,

"Yes Private?"

"So, by put out of commission, do you mean pop the pilot, or blow that bitch out of the sky?"

"Funny you should ask," said Ashley, "we can't take the chance of a Cerberus loyalist retaking control of the ship. So, we'll be placing explosives charges, here, here, and here."

Ashley pointed to the engines room, the cockpit, and the weapon's system.

Octavia leaned forward, "I like this plan already."

Adam's rose her hand, "why don't we just use the Salem's guns to destroy it? It would save much time and we could be on the ground faster."

"Our scans have shown that the ship carries a sort of stealth technology that makes it impossible for the Salem's cannons to target the ship. If we missed on the first attack, the colony would most likely be destroyed. Command doesn't want that risk being taken."

Adams sunk into her chair a bit, obviously not liking that she hadn't been able to point out a flaw in the plan.

"So, we'll split into three teams," she continued, "team one will be led by myself and will be placing our charge at the cockpit. Team two will be led by Sgt. Johnson and will be tackling the ship's engines. Team three will be led by one of you and will be attacking out the ship's weapon's system. This should effectively cripple the ship if not blow it up completely."

Yun raised his hand, Ash tried to ignore him but Yun shook his hand more to try and get her attention. Finally she acknowledged him, "what's our infiltration strategy? I mean it will be pretty hard to get aboard without detection or alerting the Cerberus troops on the planet."

Ashley blinked, truly surprised that it had not been some smart remark or lewd comment. Getting over her surprise, she answered, "we'll be boarding via the ship's hanger, as for the problem of alerting their ground troops, the Salem is equipped with a jamming device that will block all transmissions."

Yun nodded, satisfied.

"After the Frigate is knocked out of the equation," she continued, pressing a button that brought up a map of the colony "our next job will be to clear out the Cerberus forces in the colony. Our first target is here, the Colony's Excavation Building. The Second Target is here, the Colony's Town Hall, our scouts report that most of the town's folk were herded there,"

Yun raised another hand, "do we have the statistics for the ratio of residents?"

It took a moment for Ash to understand what he was asking, mostly because she didn't expect him to use such big words. She pulled up some statistics on the screen and listed off the answer, "72% human, 10% Turian, 9% Krogan, 6% Salarian, and 3% Asari."

Yun nodded, satisfied.

"Our primary objective is", the map shifted with Ashley's touch, "this, an excavation sight. This is what we believe Cerberus is really after. Not too long ago, a lot of Reaper tech was found down there. We are to make sure that Cerberus doesn't get their slimy hands on it. Once it is secure, a Reaper tech expert will be make sure that it's safe to be around."

Another hand, this time Ross, "uh…I hate to mess with the plan, but none of us are Reaper experts. In fact I'm pretty sure out of everyone in this room, you've got the most experience."

Ash smiled at the subtle compliment, "I know that none of you are Reaper experts, that's why Command decided to send us one."

She turned to Johnson and nodded, he pressed on the tac com in his ear and whispered, "you can come in now."

The door in the back slid open and everyone turned around, no sooner than they had, that most of them let out a small gasp.

Standing in the door was a Geth.

"Whoa, wait, time out!" said Rogers, "we have to work with a Geth?"

"And you're gonna like it!" growled Johnson, Rogers immediately backed down.

"I love this job," said Breznev, smiling crazily,

All the other members of the team didn't look as though they agreed either, save Yun, who got up from his seat and walked over to meet the Geth. At first, when the two met in the middle of the room, Ash thought that the man was going to challenge the synthetic.

He stared long and hard, sizing up the new arrival. This one looked just like most of its brethren, about 6ft tall, with exposed circuitry and a sort of hunched back. It was also colored a gunmetal steel color with a single blue photoreceptor on its "head".

It stared back at Yun, the flaps around its receptor raised themselves like a facial expression.

Then, Yun stuck his hand out.

"Nice to meet you," he said, his tone quite friendly. Ash relaxed. The Geth seemed to consider the hand for a moment, then took it.

"Cpl. Gabriel Yun," the human introduced himself, "and you?"

"I am referred to by my fellow Geth," said the Geth, in a voice that sounded very computerized, "as Platform 343117"

"343117," repeated Yun, "must hard to label your stuff."

"We do not label our personal possessions," said the Geth, "we digitally integrate a code into it so that all Geth may know that it does not belong to them when seen."

"Hm, cool," said Yun, "but that's going to be a real pain to say on the field, so I'm going to have to think of something to call you. How about Spark?"

The flangs on the Geth's head moved again.

"Cpl. Yun," interrupted Ash, "we do have a briefing to finish."

Yun smirked and moved back towards his chair, "sure thing sweet cheeks,"

"Secure that shit Yun!" growled Johnson,

Yun held up his hands in surrender and sat back down. The Geth walked up next to Ashley and turned to face the team.

"As I was saying, Platform 343117-"

"Spark"

"Excuse me?"

"Spark, Cpl. Yun chose a name for me that I believe is appropriate and much more convenient for the team," explained the Geth,

"Uh…okay, Spark, is our Reaper expert, he'll make sure that the stuff is safe. Nothing more, nothing less," said Ashley, that seemed to put the team at rest, "mission begins in one hour, everyone be ready by then."

"Alright boys and girls, you heard the lady," stepped in Johnson, "get your shit together and get it together fast! Come on move it!"

Everybody immediately rose and filed out of the room in an orderly manner. When they were all gone, Ashley let out a sigh and rubbed the side of her head.

"Are you well Williams Commander?"

"Yeah, I'm fine" she replied, though she was clearly not, "just…a little stressed out."

"Understandable, this is a high risk mission, I will try not to provide any more reasons for your stress," assured Spark, and with that, left as well.

Ash sighed again and summarized her feelings in one sentence,

"how did Shepard ever do it?"


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Terrorist Takedown

The SSV Salem's armory was a buzz with movement as the ship's marines prepared themselves for the task ahead. Though each of them was different, all knew that any mistake made here could result in disaster on the mission.

Weapons were checked twice, armors were cleaned, systems were given test runs, and hearts were steeled for the mission.

Octavia and King were the heavies of the squad, their main purpose was complete and total anhilation of any target put in front of them. Appropriately, they packed the biggest weapons and donned the heaviest armor.

Both soldiers wore top of the line midnight black, T5-V Battlesuits, incredibly bulky and angular looking armor but it gave them an incredible damage resistance.

Octavia grabbed from the weapon's rack, her favorite gun: a modified N7 Typhoon Light Machine Gun, one that she had affectionately begun to refer to as Sasha, which she had written with chalk on the side of the barrel. She gave the gun a small kiss, "get ready for work baby"

The British woman slung Sasha onto her back, then grabbed her second weapon: a Predator pistol, which she strapped to her thigh.

King, who was next to his fellow soldier, grabbed a less bulky Phaseton assault rifle. He gave it a quick look over, appreciating its unique Turian style, before placing it on his back.

"I don't know why you use that pea shooter, when you can have something like this," quipped Octavia, giving Sasha a light pat.

"Say what you want about the Turian's, but they make some mighty fine boomsticks," replied King, he then grabbed his second weapon, an M-100 Grenade Launcher, "besides, I've got this!"

Lastly, King also picked out a Predator Pistol as his sidearm.

Rogers was nearby, making sure that his Omni-shield was working properly. The holographic like shield had saved the man's life many times. After becoming satisfied that the tool would not fail him on the field, the man began to arm himself, grabbing an Avenger rifle and a Tempest Submachine gun.

Nathan Yahachi kept to his own corner of the armory. Currently, he had only dressed up to his waste, leaving his upper half naked and allowing him to display for the rest of the squad his tattoos. They were artistic and colorful and befitting of his heritage. Some depicted samurai warriors slaying their opponents with graphic detail, other showed demonic creatures tearing apart helpless villagers.

They were in stark contrast to the man himself, who look completely calm.

He held himself with his legs spread apart and both of his hands on the handle of a sword. The sword itself could be considered a masterful piece of art, but through addition of technology, it had become a powerful instrument of death.

Yahachi gave a few quick powerful swings, each of which seemed to flow into the next. He spun and leapt, parried and struck, all with lighting speed. The moment he finished, he used the same speed to quickly sheath the sword in a single motion.

Satisfied, he went about gathering his more modern weapons. For him, a single Carnifex pistol.

In addition, the armor he donned was sleek and offered what looked like minimal protection. However, this hardly concerned the Asian man, as the enemy could never hit him anyway.

Private Ross, checked the sentry turret that he would be hauling around with him on the mission. The stationary weapon was usually stored on his back, but if needed he could deploy it to provide suppressing fire on the enemy. The newer ones that he had been supplied with were actually relatively light, as a result he could carry two on his back at a time.

After checking the turret, he grabbed for himself a Tempest and Avenger rifle.

Sanders, the squad's sniper, donned his specialized helmet. The right side of the visor had been modified to fit three lenses with varying length. He could switch between them at will in order to get a better look at his target. They had also been fitted with a variety of vision types, night, heat, and x-ray.

His weapon of choice for dealing the shot was the Mantis Sniper rifle, carrying armor piercing rounds, and for close up a Predator pistol. When no one was looking, he adjusted the lens on his helmet to full power, and snuck a peek at Private Adams through his x-ray vision.

He gave a small chuckle as the vision revealed her womanly shape.

The Private herself, noticed, and quickly tossed a thermal clip at the man. The clip struck home, catching Sanders right between the eyes.

"Sorry, sorry," he said hastily turning away.

With an irate sigh, Adams went back to arming herself. She mainly used biotics to fight and considered herself one of the best in the Alliance military. She even sometimes went as far as to claim that she could rival any Asari biotic, whether this was true or not remained to be seen. But no one dispute that she was talented with her powers. She was also adept at using weapons, for herself she grabbed an Avenger rifle and a Predator pistol.

Private Breznev, the squad's medic, was left mostly to his own devices, as no one wanted to be near the arguably psychotic man.

Being about mid-range accuracy, Breznev needed a weapon with a decent amount of firepower and a good deal of range. For this reason he armed himself with the Vindicator rifle, his own personal rifle had been painted with the Russian words for "Already Dead".

In addition, the man carried with him many knives. One was a large bowie knife, the other a crude looking piece of metal that looked disturbingly like a prison shank, and the rest were of a variety of sizes. He polished all with great concentration.

During all this time, Sgt. Johnson kept watch on his squad whilst arming himself. He was the squad's leader and needed to keep himself focused on both the battle and his men. For this reason his arsenal was simple yet effective, an Valkyrie assault rifle and a Carnifex pistol, as well as a couple frag grenades.

As the Sergeant armed himself, he noticed one of his soldiers barely moving. Unsurprisingly, it was Yun. With a sigh, he stomped on over to his soldier, the man took notice immediately and looked up.

Johnson gave him a stern glare and asked, "why the hell aren't you gearing up?"

Yun seemed to think on the question for a bit, then replied, "I don't really feel like it."

"You're not gonna feel your ass pretty soon after I'm done kicking it," growled the Sergeant,

"I'm sorry Sarge," the man said wearily, "it's just…you know"

The officer's expression softened slightly, "Yun, don't think about it right now, just get your gear on and pull your shit together."

Yun nodded weakly and said, "okay Sarge."

Johnson nodded, then walked away to finish his own prep work. Yun took in a deep breath, then exhaled.

He then began the arduous process of donning his specially made armor and selecting his preferred weaponry. His armor was special, for it had no sleeves and left his mechanical arms bare.

His weapons were also a bit odd as he took for himself, not just one, but two side arms. Both of them N7 Eagles and for his third weapon he grabbed a Piranha shotgun with what seemed to be an extended magazine.

When he was finished suiting up, he activated his own biotic powers and used them to experimentally lift a few rifles. After performing a series of exercises, which involved rotating them and spinning them around in various ways, he was prepared.

From the back of the armory, Ashley, who had already suited up in her dark blue armor and armed herself with her Revenant and Viper, had observed the exchange between the two men.

Coincidentally, Johnson walked up to her to give an update, "we'll be ready in just a few more minutes ma'am."

Ashley nodded, then asked, "what were you and Yun talking about?"

"Ma'am?"

"A few seconds ago, you talked to Cpl. Yun about something. Is it important?"

"No ma'am, Cpl. Yun is just going through a few personal issues,"

"Personal issues can effect a soldier's performance Sergeant, if the man is going through something I'd like to know."

"Yes ma'am," said Johnson, he then brought his voice down a bit, "Yun has family on Mars, I'm guessing he's just worried."

Ashley turned back to Yun and nodded to herself, she could understand worrying about family. During the Reaper war she'd never stopped worrying for her sister.

"As you were Sergeant" she dismissed, Johnson gave a quick salute, then returned to the squad.

Perhaps Ashley thought, she had been a bit too hard to judge the man. Worry for family could send any person searching for a bottle.

It was at that time that Yun actually replaced Johnson in her field of vision.

"Hey, LC, can we talk?" he asked,

Ashley shook herself and looked up, "what is it?"

"Um…look, I think we might have gotten off on the wrong foot," he said, a bit awkwardly. His facial expression seemed sincere, which gave Ash hope that he had snapped out of his drunken state. "after all this craziness is over, you wanna share a bottle or two? Maybe at my quarters?"

Ashley sighed and covered her face with the palm of her hand, maybe he really was just a booze addicted womanizer.

"Is that a no?"

( #*(%&)(#*%& #*()%&) #(%&* ()#*%& *()#%&)( #%& )#%&(*)

The squad of alliance soldiers stood at attention in the SSV Salem's hanger, Sergeant Johnson walked down the line whilst the two officers inspected the troops. Ashley Williams in the meantime, hung back near the three Kodiak Shuttles.

"Absolute Badasses!" declared Johnson, "everyone pile into their shuttles, it's time to get messy!"

The soldiers did just that, entering their assigned ships with practiced precision.

They had been split into three teams, each with their own objective. Ashley and Johnson each entered their own assigned shuttles.

Each shuttle held one team, three in all, each team was tasked with their own objective. Team One was led by herself and consisted of Cpl. Yun (much to her annoyance) and Pvt. Ross. Team Two consisted of PFC. Octavia, Pvt. Adams, Pvt. Breznev, and was led by Sgt. Johnson. Team Three was led by Cpl. Yahachhi, and consisted of PFC. King, Pvt. Rogers, and Pvt. Sanders.

Team One was tasked with tackling the cockpit, Team Two's Job was the engines, and Team Three's was to destroy the ship's weapons.

Inside her shuttle, Ashley took a seat and strapped herself in while Ross grabbed an overhead handle and Yun sat down behind the cockpit.

"Wanna sit on my lap?" teased Yun with a smile,

Williams scowled,

"Hey man, lay off the lady," quipped Ross, he then turned to her and said, "sorry ma'am, he's trying to compensate for something."

Williams let out a small chuckle and Yun rolled his eyes.

The pilot turned on the shuttle's engines and a red light illuminated the interior.

"Hold on to your butts back there, we are dropping in 3…2…1!"

The floor beneath the shuttle opened and the vehicle was subsequently dropped. Williams felt her stomach jump up into her throat then slam right back down as the engines kicked in and they began flying through the cold vacuum of space.

"I love that," remarked Yun, who had now lit up a cigarette and was smoking.

Feeling annoyed, Williams immediately said, "no smoking."

Yun took another drag, then realized that she was referring to him. With a sigh, he took the cigarette out of his mouth and unexpectedly jammed its lit end into the back of his mechanical hand.

The cinders were immediately snuffed out, but Yun continued to jam it into his hard metal flesh. He looked down intensely as if watching for the pain, but his face remained passive and no pain ever came.

He sighed again, this time out of distress, then carelessly tossed the bud away.

Ashley felt a pang of confusion, did the man want to feel pain? By the way he'd just acted it certainly seemed that way. In addition, the expression he'd held just a few moments ago had been on of true grief, grief of something that cut deep into his being and refused to heal.

He hid it well, but Ashley could tell that whatever it was still nagged at the man.

Against her better judgment she asked, "how did you lose them?"

Yun raised an eyebrow and pointed himself as if asking, 'me?'

Ashley nodded,

Yun took in a breath, as if thinking of where to start. Then said, "Battle of the Citadel, I was on one of teams that was ordered to help escort the Council to safety. My squad was ordered to hold back the Geth"

He paused,

"while we held out, a Destroyer, one of those big guys, fires a rocket off. I tried to use biotics to block it, but I didn't have enough time and the explosion broke through the barrier," he paused again, licking his lips, "next thing I know, I'm on the ground with my squad trying to drag me out. I think I blacked out, I woke in the hospital and…well, they were already both gone."

"I'm sorry to hear that," said Ashley, true sympathy in her voice.

"Aw, don't be," he said, "I got a great story out of it, works every time I'm at the bar looking for some companionship with the ladies. Plus, a lot of them say that I'm real good at using the fingers, course, they say I'm pretty good at using just about all of myself."

Yun let out a overly loud laugh, but neither Ross nor Williams laughed with him. But that didn't stop him form continuing. Eventually his laughter died down and he was left looking up at the shuttle's ceiling with a satisfied smile on his face.

"We're approaching the objective," announced the pilot, "ETA 2 minutes!"

Team One's shuttle sped off towards the hanger nearest to the front of the frigate, team two headed for the back hanger while team three headed for the middle hanger.

"Lieutenant Commander Williams, do you read?" asked the voice of the Captain in her ear,

"I read you Captain,"

"Good, our jammers are working, the frigate is totally cut off from the Cerberus ground forces,"

"Acknowledged, we're nearing the ship now, we'll be in soon."

"Good luck"

"Entering the hanger!" announced the pilot, "let's hope there's no one at the welcome mat."

Ashley felt the ship decelerate until it came to a complete stop.

"We're in!"

Williams immediately unbuckled herself from her seat and unslung her Revenant. She suddenly heard the unmistakable sound of gunfire coming from outside, most likely the welcoming committee.

"The shuttle's taking fire!"

"Clear out the hanger!" ordered Ashley as her team stacked up at the shuttle door. It abruptly slid open and yelled, "Go!"

Never one to sit back, Ashley was the first one out the door. She immediately spotted a squad of Cerberus soldiers and unleashed a hellish stream of fire.

Four were immediately cut down, while the rest quickly scrambled for cover.

"Oh no you don't," whispered Yun, calling to his biotics, he surrounded himself in a ghostly blue then lashed out with his hand.

Three soldiers were lifted up from their cover and left to helplessly dangle in the air. Yun finished them off with short bursts of automatic fire from one of his Eagles.

One of the remaining soldiers poked out from cover and sent a burst of fire at them. Ross and Williams ducked behind cover, while Yun quickly scrambled to the side.

Without pausing, the man shot out a hand, sending out a wave of biotic power that slammed the soldier into a wall. Never taking his eye off the enemy position, Yun began to swiftly and gracefully advance while firing short bursts of his Eagles, causing the soldiers to keep their heads down.

Soon, he was right on the other side of their cover. Not missing a beat, He swung himself over the pipes, his outstretched feet striking one of them in the face. The other attempted to shoot Yun, but he quickly put a burst of automatic fire into the man's chest, then finished off the staggered soldier with a headshot.

"Clear!" he yelled,

"Alright, time to get to work," said Ash, "Ross, set up a turret to defend the shuttle."

"On it,"

"This is Team One," Ash spoke into her com, "we've secured our hanger, how copy on the rest of you?"

"This is Team Two," said Johnson's voice, "we're in too, no casualties"

"This is Team Three," said Yahachi's voice, "hanger secure, problem free"

"Acknowledged," said Ash as she watched Ross deploy a turret, "you all know your objectives, get to it."

"Turret is up ma'am," said Ross when she dropped communications,

"Good," she nodded, "alright, let's get this done. I'll take point, Ross you take the flank, Yun, watch my back."

"Can't stop," quipped the Corporal,

Ash decided to ignore his comment and motioned for them to follow up the stairs.

They did so, following in a straight line with Yun in the middle, and Ross watching their backs. They advanced through the hallways, moving their way towards the cockpit. The team went up several flights of stairs till they ended up on the second deck.

It wasn't long before they met resistance.

Ashley began rounding a corner, as she did, she caught motion.

"There they are!"

The Spectre quickly back peddled, just in time to miss being torn to pieces by automatic fire.

"Damn it!" she cursed, taking cover against the wall she chanced another peak. Before they opened fire again, she spotted a turret deployed in the narrow hall and at least four soldiers behind it.

For the moment they seemed content to stay put, but Ashley didn't, they needed to get to their objective and these boys were standing in their way.

"Okay, this is how we're going to do this," she whispered to her team, "first, we toss a flash bang, then me and Ross-hey!"

Yun suddenly burst out from cover, body covered in blue biotic power. Then, he was suddenly at the other side of the hall.

The four soldiers didn't even realize they'd been hit by a biotic charge, till they were slammed against the wall and Yun filled them up with automatic fire. When he finished with the soldiers, he fired his remaining bullets into the turret, effectively disabling it.

Ash and Ross walked out, though Ash more stomped than walked.

"What the hell was that?" she questioned angrily as Yun casually reloaded his Eagles.

The man was silent for a moment before replying, "effective use of force?"

"I gave no order for you to do that Corporal, if you want to keep out of the brig I suggest you start listening to me," she snapped,

Yun finished reloading and casually responded, "okay"

The Spectre let out an aggravated growl then pushed passed the man to continue on. She especially be glad when this part of the mission was over, despite his so far admirable combat skills, this man was turning out to be a bigger and bigger headache every minute. Worse, he seemed to know and enjoy it.

To keep her mind of the subject, she decided to contact the other teams, "This is Team One, how copy?"

"This is Team Two, on schedule, we're on deck two and nearing the engines now, encountering minimal resistance. Must've jumped ship when they heard we were coming,"

"Team Three, on deck three, doing well, nothing has stopped us so far,"

"Acknowledged, keep going,"

Ash and her team continued down the halls, strangely not running into any soldiers for a good 5 minutes. She was starting to believe that Johnson's joke that all of the crew had jumped ship was true, that is till she heard the distinct sound of one of Cerberus soldiers being ordered around.

"Get ready, I want all of you keep your eyes on those entrance at all times. Anything moves, you fill it full of holes!"

Peaking around the corner, Ashley spotted a large rectangular hallway, which just so happened to be jam packed with Cerberus soldiers. Just from a glance she estimated that there were at least a dozen soldiers. Behind them was what she assumed to be the entrance to the bridge.

Now it was just a matter of getting past them.

Yun, who had been peering around the corner with her, dropped a suggestion, "I could send a biotic shockwave down that hallway. The place is too wide to get all of them, but it'd probably scatter them like rabbits."

"Do it," she said, "me and Ross will provide covering fire."

Yun nodded in affirmation,

"Ready…go!"

Ashley and Ross swung out of cover and began to fire their weapons. Immediately most of the Cerberus troops ducked for cover while a few fired back. Yun burst out and stood in the open, he summoned his biotics again that struck out with an open hand.

A powerful string of blue explosions ran down the hallway, knocking Cerberus troops around like rag dolls while stunning the troops with shields. Unfortunately, as Yun had predicted, the shockwave did not hit all of the troop, only about half. Of the half most did not die, but those that lived were badly injured.

The Cerberus troops turned their weapons on Yun, he quickly dove to cover on the other side of the hallway, barely escaping death.

Ashley turned to Ross as she ejected her spent thermal clip and slammed in another, "get ready to move up on my go!"

Ross nodded,

"Go!" Ashley popped back out of cover and sprayed a suppressive fire on the hostile humans. Ross burst out at the same time and carefully but quickly advanced up the hallway.

Not wanting to stay out in the open for too long, he quickly found cover again behind a small divider in the wall.

Unfortunately, the doors behind the Cerberus troops suddenly parted and let through another dozen soldiers. Before long, all three squad members were pinned down by a continuous rain of bullets.

Yun angled his pistols around the corner and fired blindly.

Ashley tossed a grenade that took out only two troops, unfortunately there were plenty more to return fire. Worse, the Cerberus troops were gradually advancing on Ross's position, soon they would overtake him.

"Ideas?" asked Yun over the gunfire,

"Just keep them pinned down!" ordered Ashley, recoiling as a bullet whizzed by her.

Yun stuck out his head to take a small peak at their enemies, only to be rewarded by a bullet glancing off his cover right near his eye. He immediately ducked back, now thoroughly pissed.

"Okay you mothers," he whispered vengefully. The soldier holstered both his Eagles and unslung his Piranha.

Powering up his biotics, he covered himself with a barrier then yelled out, "cover me!"

Before Ash could ask what he was doing, Yun jumped out of cover and began firing into the crowd of White soldiers. His modified shotgun roaring over all others as he held his finger down on the trigger and let loose salvo after salvo of flesh tearing slugs.

The bodies immediately began to pile up as Yun walked undaunted towards their lines. Many hit the ground already dead, giant gaping holes ripped into their chests. Some lost limbs and screamed out their lungs before being put down by another shot.

One soldier fired a quick burst into Yun's shoulder, the bullets bounced of his barrier and left the man unharmed. Yun was then free to return fire, which he promptly did, blowing the man's head right off his shoulders.

Another group of soldiers attempted to put down the advancing human, but before they could he blew them away with a powerful biotic shockwave and sent them all bouncing off the walls like rubber balls.

The soldier began to retreat back towards the door, their tactic proved futile as Yun eagerly gunned them down murderously.

Finally, Yun reached the end of a hall, having crossed over on a mountain of corpses. The man took in a deep breath and took a brief moment to check himself over. Much to his dismay, he was unharmed.

A gargled groan caught his attention and he saw a Cerberus trooper on the ground, a dinner plate size hole in his ribs yet he somehow managed to stay alive. Yun ejected his spent clip and slapped in a new one, then promptly corrected his error.

"Damn man!" yelled out Ross, slapping Yun on the shoulder, "you kicked their asses! Why didn't you do that before?!"

The Corporal simply shrugged his shoulders.

"Nice job," said Ashley as she joined them, "but let's keep moving, cockpit isn't far"

( *%(& (#*%& ()#*&%)(* #%&)*%& #)(% #)

Outside the engines room, two Cerberus troopers stood on either side of the only entrance into the room while another two patrolled the hall outside.

A team of two walked down the hall, alert yet calm.

That calm was shattered when one of the soldiers was suddenly enveloped in a shimmering blue field and violently yanked into an adjacent hall. The second soldier barely had time to realize what had happened, when a man wielding a knife suddenly slammed into him and drove a jagged knife into his windpipe.

The soldier gurgled on his own blood for a full five seconds before finally dying.

Hearing the commotion, the two soldiers came out through the door.

Breznev reacted immediately, yanking his knife out from his victim then expertly tossing it. The weapon caught one of the guards in the center of his helmeted forehead.

The remaining guard opened fire, Breznev confidently stood his ground.

The bullets ricocheted away at the last moment off of a biotic barrier, setup by Adams. The woman then ended the Cerberus soldier's life by slamming him with a powerful wave of biotics energy.

The female human smirked arrogantly,

"easy" she said,

"Yeah, yeah, we're all very impressed," mocked Johnson as he walked out into the hall with Octavia, "now get your ass back into formation."

Adams lost her smirk and reluctantly did as told.

"_Rooks! Are you still there?"_ came a voice from one of the dead Cerberus soldiers,

Johnson put a finger to his lip, then motioned the team towards the door. The team moved, stacking up at the entrance. Octavia, who was in the front, placed a lock hacking device on the door.

After punching in a few quick commands, the door's holographic indicator turned from red to green.

"Open and clear," ordered Johnson,

Octavia acknowledged the command. Adams moved up and held her finger up to the device.

The British woman nodded and Adams opened the door.

Inside they were immediately confronted with a squad of Cerberus soldiers, led by a Centurion. Octavia immediately shouldered her Typhoon and hosed them down with automatic fire.

The soldiers fell quickly under the deadly hail of bullets, most dying with at least a dozen bloody holes in them. But the Centurion's shields held up long enough for him to dive behind cover and return fire.

As the team of Alliance marines found cover, another squad of Cerberus troops came from further on to aid the Centurion. Among the reinforcements was a Centurion wielding a Firestorm flamethrower.

The marines scattered as a stream of blazing hot fire was sprayed at them,

Johnson, quick to react, primed two grenades and tossed them into the middle of the Cerberus soldiers. The Sergeant heard one of them cry out a warning, followed by the sound of twin explosions.

Half the Cerberus numbers had been reduced to ribbons of meat, unfortunately the Centurion with a flamethrower had not been among them.

The Centurion sprayed out another stream of fire, Johnson felt the heat wash over him as he ducked under the flames.

"Hey! Dickhead!" Octavia hosed down the Centurion with her Typhoon, its shields flared as it kept the bullets from penetrating. At the last moment, Octavia's clip ran out, but the Centurion's shields finally died.

Breznev was there, like a wild predator smelling an opportunity. He pounced on the Centurion's back and hammered down one of his shivs into the man's neck. Over and over again he brought it down, his victim's blood splattering his own armor, until finally the Centurion fell to his knees and slumped to the floor.

The Russian marine pulled out his knife and inhaled the smell of blood, but his revelry was cut short when a Cerberus soldier tackled him to the ground. But that same soldier was suddenly yanked off and thrown to the floor, where Adams smashed a fist of biotic energy into his chest with a sickening crunch.

The remaining Cerberus soldiers fell back and clustered together in the door way leading to the engine. They had a firm position and would have most likely been able to hold for quite some time.

Unfortunately, Sergeant Johnson wouldn't have any of it.

The man scooped up the late Centurion's flamethrower and engulfed the enemy position in flames. The men screamed in agony as the fire melted the skin from their flesh and roasted their bones.

Johnson sprayed the dying men with another healthy dosage of fire. When they did not die immediately, he gave them another shot.

When they all finally lay still, bodies smoldering, the Sergeant took out a cigar and touched it to the flamethrower's barrel. He then brought it up to his mouth and took in a deep puff.

"Nothing like a Cuban cigar over enemy bodies,"

( #%*( ()#%& ()#*%&() #*%&)( *%&)( #%&*( )#%*&)

A squad of Cerberus soldiers took position behind a makeshift barrier of crates. Behind them was the door to the ship's weapons control room; before them was a long hallway, perfect for bottle necking the enemy.

So it made sense that no one would try a head on assault.

Except, King wasn't just anyone. He bravely stepped out into the hallway, took aim with his Grenade launcher, and fired.

The shot was dead on and exploded right in the middle of the squad, taking out all of them in a single blast.

"Whoo! Now that was beautiful!" cheered the man, "someone give me five!"

Yahachi made no comment and simply moved passed the big man. King simply shrugged, a large smile still creased onto his face.

"Ya know, even after all this time, that fella still gives me the creeps," said Rogers,

"Tell me about it," murmured Sanders,

"Aw, he's just holding back," assured King,

By the time they stopped talking, Yahachi had already reached the door. At that moment, the door slid open and let in a trio Cerberus soldiers.

King was the first to react, "Yahachi move!"

But the man didn't, he simply stood there as the Cerberus soldiers raised their rifles. But before they could open fire, the man blinked out of existence.

"What the-"one soldier started, before he was cut down. Yahachi reappeared, behind the trio, his sword coated with blood.

The second soldier attempted to turn, but was too slow. Yahachi had already stepped forward and sliced open the man's stomach. The third one managed to fire off three shots before Yahachi's sword took off his arm, then his head.

All three bodies fell to the ground in near synchronization.

Down the hall, King let out a relived breath, "whew, nice moves man. Someday you've got to tell me how you do that."

Yahachi only gave a silent nod, then replaced his sword on his back.

He motioned for the team to form up and keep moving. The team did so, stopping just outside the door.

Yahachi then motioned for Sanders to take a look inside.

"Got it," acknowledged Sanders,

Flicking on his helmet's special goggles and cycling to the x-ray spectrum. He immediately spotted a dozen Cerberus soldiers on the other side of the door, taking defensive positions and preparing to fill with holes anything that came through.

"Oooh, that's a lot of guns," said the Sniper,

An electronic buzz drew the squad's attention, Rogers had taken out his Omni-shield.

"Challenge accepted!"

The door to the ship's weapon's control room slid open and every single Cerberus operative raised their rifle. Roger stepped in, Shield humming.

"Open fire!"

The Alliance marine slammed the bottom of the shield into the floor and dug his heels in. Sheets of armor piercing rounds slammed into his barrier and rejected.

"That's right you sons a bitches! Pour it on!"

"For a guy who doesn't like fighting, you sure are excited," commented Sanders who had been hiding behind the Southerner's back.

He was promptly ignored and told to shoot back. Sanders gave a groan and popped behind Roger's shoulder, leveling his pistol. Six shots rang out and four Cerberus soldiers tumbled to the floor.

Rogers added his own fire to the mix, firing of controlled bursts with his submachine gun.

From behind the door, King used his Phaseton to attack from afar.

Those Operatives that were smart enough to keep down were quickly dispatched by an invisible sword. In only 5 minutes, the entire room was cleared.

Yahachi flicked off the blood on his blade and was about to replace it on his back, when a figure suddenly uncloaked and swung a sword at him.

With practiced speed, Yahachi dodged the strike and blocked the next.

He then jumped away and took a good look at his assailant, a Cerberus Phantom. The man wielded his sword with ease, the Japanese marine knew that he could not take this foe lightly.

"Yahachi man, move! I can't get a shot!" yelled King,

Yahachi held up his hand, signaling his team not to interfere but instead move on without him. They seemed reluctant at first, but eventually obeyed.

With his men out of harm's way, Yahachi knew he could focus all his attention on the Phantom before him.

The man took a deep breath and slowly shifted himself into a proper stance, his shoulder to the enemy, the tip of his sword pointed away and held high.

He heard the Phantom give a small snort, but Yahachi kept himself still.

A single, long moment passed as the two warriors waited.

The Phantom was the first to move.

He exploded into motion, swinging his weapon down low.

Yahachi threw up his sword and parried, then carried his blade up over his head and chopped down. The Phantom blocked the attack then retaliated by swinging at Yahachi's ribs.

Yahachi quickly shifted the tip of his sword down and blocked the strike, then carried his opponent's blade up and away. The marine then swept his opponent's feet out from under him and stabbed down.

The Phantom quickly rolled away, eager to get his head away from Yahachi's sword. The Cerberus warrior lashed out, causing Yahachi to relent, then jumped back to his feet.

Bravely, yet recklessly in Yahachi's eyes, the Phantom charged forward to attack with an overhead chop. Yahachi immediately saw his opening, he stepped forward and sliced his sword through his opponent's midsection.

The Phantom, to his credit, took a few more steps before falling dead.

(*( #%& (#)*%&) (#&*%) &#%) (#&%() &#%)

Ash and her team stacked up at the door to the, when the COM in her ear said, _"This is King, do you read?"_

"This is Williams, I hear you," she replied,

"_We ran into some Cerberus hotshots on our way to the objective, advise caution when approaching yours,"_

"Copy, Williams out," the feed cut and Williams motioned to Ross.

"Silent or Deadly?"

"I've been in ships made by Cerberus before, a lot of space on the other side, Deadly,"

Ross nodded and placed a shaped explosive charge on the door, then returned back to formation next to Yun.

Ash held up three fingers and Ross nodded,

3…

2…

1…

BOOM!

"Go! Go!" she ordered,

Yun charged in first and was immediately confronted with two soldiers, whom he proceeded to toss over the ship's star map.

Ashley followed after, spotted a trio of soldiers and gunned them down.

Ross came in last and was immediately attacked by a Centurion wielding an electrified baton. Ross caught him by the wrist and tossed him over the shoulder, then put two bullets in the man's head.

Bodies tumbled to the deck as the trio of marines advanced forward, some were shot, some reduced to mush by grenades, others broken by biotics.

As the neared the actual cockpit, their progress was suddenly halted when out came four Cerberus Guardians, heavily armored troops wielding shields that could take a tremendous amount of punishment.

Ashley fired half a clip of her assault rifle into one of their shields and every single one of them was pushed away. Thankfully, she knew exactly how to deal with them.

"Yun!"

"On it!" the man summoned his biotic powers and shot out hand, an invisible force gripped one of the Guardian's shield and ripped it off of his arm.

Now vulnerable, he was quickly put down.

Unfortunately, the remaining three became aware of the Alliance tactic and ordered an all-out charge. Yun managed to rip one more shield off of a Guardian before being tackled by another.

Ross quickly put down the shieldless Guardian but was forced into cover by another's gunfire. Ashley came to his aid, activating her omni-blade to stab into the Guardian's vulnerable back.

That left that left the one now brawling with Yun.

The Alliance Marine managed to pull away from the Guardian and gain just enough time to strike out a biotic push.

The Guardian held strong and dug his heels into the floor, managing to remain on his feet. That was quickly rectified when Ashley shot him in the back, ending his life.

After that, everything was quiet and the marines were the only ones still alive.

"Glad that's over with," muttered Yun, rubbing his aching temple,

"Let's get to the cockpit," said Ashley, her team forming up behind her.

It only took a few moments and an explosive charge before the team found themselves standing in front of the cockpit. Looking around, Ashley felt a rising sense of nostalgia. To say that this cockpit didn't remind her of the one on the Normandy's was probably a crime. She half expected to hear one of Joker's annoying quips come out of nowhere.

Pushing it aside, she gave orders for shaped charges to be set.

The explosives would do just enough damage to cripple any attempts at moving the ship but not enough to cause it to turn into a fiery ball of metal hurling down to the planet below.

"This is Team 1" she spoke as Yun and Ross set charges, "we've completed our objective, how copy?"

"This is Team 2," crackled Johnson, "we've got our shit done too"

"This is Team 3" said King's voice, "we're good here also"

"Great job, let's clear out and detonate the charges. It's about time we took this fight to the surface."

**End**

**Alright, yay! 3rd chapter is done, this one was a bit of a doozey to right but I managed. I hope to get you guys all the way to chapter 4 before the week ends and probably give you chapter 5 next week. I've been thinking over this story quite a bit so I know what to write.**

**Please review, it helps, tell me if you like the story so far.**

**Also check out my account, I've put up some new story ideas and I'd like to hear you're opinions.**


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Investigation

Ashley shuttle exited the Cerberus spacecraft, tailed by the shuttles of the two other teams. She watched the ship shrink from the side window and before long spotted several parts of it sprout small fiery mushroom clouds.

A smile spread across her face as she felt the tingle of a job well done.

"Nicely done," she said over her COM, "but this mission isn't over. All shuttles rendezvous at rally point Alpha."

Three affirmatives responded over the COM. Ashley felt her own shuttle begin to dive down towards the surface of the planet, where they would be inserted into the settlement via the space port.

The Spectre did a quick check of her equipment, one could never be too careful when it came to combat. As she made sure her Revenant was in proper condition, she noticed Yun lazily staring at her.

If he noticed that she had noticed he gave no indication. She could have chewed him out for it, she had the authority to do so, but Ash knew that with these kinds of people it was better not to provoke them.

"Are you ignoring me because you think it'll provoke me?"

Ashley gave a silent curse, now the bastard was reading her thoughts.

"Cause it won't work,"

"So I see," she shot back, refusing to look at him. She then turned to Ross and asked, "is he always like this?"

"Always," he replied, "but don't worry, not all of us are like him."

Ashley smirked, "thank goodness for that,"

Behind her Yun snorted. He then took out a packet of cigarettes and a lighter. He took out one of the small white tobacco filled rolls of paper with his mouth then lit it with the lighter, taking in a long drag.

"Want one?" he offered, both Ashley and Ross declined.

Yun just shrugged his artificial shoulders and replaced the pack in his pocket, but didn't but the lighter back.

Instinct nudged Ashley's attention and caused her to take note of this seemingly uninteresting detail. But it paid off when she noticed the man bring the small flame of the lighter under the palm of his mechanical hand.

Had his hand been flesh he would have yelped in pain, dropped the lighter, and left with a burn for his idiocy. But his hand of metal showed no sign of burning and his face showed no sign of pain, only disappointment.

Yun closed the lighter with a sigh and put it back in his pocket.

Ashley furrowed her eyebrows as confusion muddled her mind, it seemed that what she thought the Corporal was doing last time was not a misinterpretation. It was like he was testing his hands, seeing if they would feel pain.

Ashley had been told before by Chakwas during her time on the Normandy, that amputee victims could suffer from what was known as Phantom limb: the sensation that the missing limb was still attached to the body.

Was Yun suffering from Phantom limb? It didn't seem like it, in fact it wasn't so much that he was bothered by pain, more like he wanted pain. Why?

The Spectre's thoughts were interrupted when the pilot yelled out, "ETA to the LZ, 60 seconds!"

Yun took one last deep drag of his cigarette before dousing its flame in the same manner he had before and muttering, "back to the grind"

Ashley touched her COM piece and put it on broadcast, "Rise and shine marines! When we touch down I want each squad to secure the perimeter, 3 meter spread."

"ETA 10 seconds!"

Yun drew his Eagles and crouched in front of the door while Ross stacked up behind him.

"That's weird," said one pilot, "doesn't look like anyone's home"

Ash scowled in confusion, no welcoming party? Either Cerberus was losing its edge or they were setting a trap. She suspected the latter but it didn't quite sit as a good enough explanation.

"You're cute when you're confused," quipped Yun,

"Eyes front soldier!" she growled, Yun just lightly chuckled and did as instructed.

The door hissed open and the team piled out, their boots clacking on the hard metal deck of the space port. Ash immediately scanned the area and found that the pilot had been correct in his assessment. Somehow, she would have preferred to be greeted by gunfire.

"Go, go!" Johnson barked, sending his men to carry out Ashley's orders.

"Clear!" announced King, Ross, and Octavia,

"Alright, everyone regroup on the L.C," ordered Johnson,

The group gathered in a circle where Ashley laid out their plan.

"Alright," she started, spreading out a holographic map of the settlement via omni-tool,

"we're here in the space port," highlighting a building in the middle, "the excavation is 1 mile to the North of here. Our objective is to secure the find then call in the main force for clean-up."

"What about hostages and survivors?" asked Rogers,

Ashley sighed, "command has deemed them a secondary priority."

A resounding groan swept through the group.

"Hey! Secure that shit!" growled Johnson,

"As I was saying," continued Ashley, "once we reach the entrance to the excavation, we'll call in our Reaper tech expert to see if it can be moved without danger to the team. In the event that it can be, we are to grab as much of it as we can and haul ass for extraction."

"And if it's not safe?" asked Adams,

"Then we stay on sight and keep any Cerberus soldiers from getting their hands on it," she replied, "now, we'll be moving through the streets. There will be a lot of roof tops for snipers and alleys for hostiles to hide. We're going to need an over watch."

"Sanders!"

"Yes Ma'am!"

"You're our guardian angel, get on the roofs and follow the team,"

"You got it!"

"Yahachi, Rogers, you two stay here and wait for the shuttle carrying our expert,"

"Roger doger," drawled Rogers,

"The rest of you, with me, let's get to that excavation site and save command's precious toys,"

It a few minutes the team exited the colony's large spaceport and found themselves outside. The sky was a hazy red, powerful winds howled through the streets, dust clicked annoyingly against their armor. Even more, the air was unfit for humans to breath and thus the team had to don helmets or air masks.

"I bet kids here don't complain about not going to the beach," joked Johnson, drawing a small chuckle from the rest of them.

"Sanders, how's it looking up there?"

_"One moment ma'am, I'm establishing a drone over watch,"_ a few moments later Ashley spotted a basketball sized blue ball hover high into the air.

"_Looks clear so far,"_ said Sanders, _"hold up, got to move."_

"Copy Sanders, keep me updated,"

The team continued moving through the streets, after ten minutes of nothing, Ashley finally voiced her concern.

"Something is not right,"

"Yeah, where are all the bad guys?" asked Ross,

"There probably shivering with fear in the corner of the houses, pissing their pants because they heard the Alliance Marines were coming to town," said Johnson,

"Maybe they're all dead,"

The whole team turned to Yun, who had suggested the outlandish idea. The man just shrugged and explained, "it's a possibility"

"_Hey boys and girls, eyes up!" _crackled Sander's voice, _"the drone just picked up some movement. I've got eyes on a squad of Cerberus troopers and a Centurion. They're on the other side of that house in the middle of a court yard."_

"Copy Sanders, keep watch while we get into position," replied Ashley, she motioned for her team to enter the house.

They did so, moving in as quietly as possible. The inside seemed relatively untouched save for the broken glass from smashed windows and a pushed over plant.

"I've got eyes on the hostiles," whispered Adams, sure enough a squad of 6 Cerberus troopers were in the middle of a courtyard. They'd set up make shift barricades with cars and furniture. At the very center a Centurion oversaw the work of an engineer who appeared to be setting up a shield pylon.

"Hurry up! We've only got a few more hours till night fall," barked the Centurion,

"Orders L.C?" asked Johnson,

"Sander? Do you have a shot?"

"_Yes ma'am"_

"take it"

Immediately, Sander's rifle crack and a Cerberus soldier hit the ground.

"What the-" Sander's rifle cracked two more times and two more hostiles fell, one through the chest another through the eye.

"Sniper!"

"Take cover!"

Three more cracks and two more bodies tumbled to the ground, leaving only the Centurion still alive but his shields completely drained.

A single shot from Adams put the man down.

"All hostiles neutralized," reported Sanders,

"Copy, let's keep moving towards the objective,"

The team obeyed and exited the house into the courtyard,

"All dead huh?" mocked Adams,

"I said it was possible, not probable," Yun shot back,

"You two shut up before I put you over my knee," warned Johnson.

However as they continued on through the settlement and came closer to their objective, it began to seem as though Yun's prior assessment had been correct. They encountered few Cerberus troopers and those that they did were always in small numbers.

Ashley felt her concern begin to grow, it just didn't feel right. Cerberus was all about Reaper technology, hell they'd even wanted to control the damn things. You'd think that they would have committed more resources to this effort or at least better troops.

What should have been at least an hour of fighting through streets and houses turned into a twenty minute stroll with minor inconveniences. Something that put everyone on edge.

"I feel like I am in Chernobyl, there you feel as though you are the last man on Earth and you feel as though things you cannot see stalk you from the shadows, and sometimes, there truly is something there."

"Yeah…thanks for that Breznev," muttered Ross

"And sometimes, you can hear echos, sometimes you hear what fears sounds like,"

"thank you, Breznev," Ross said more forcefully this time,

It was just then that the team stood before the excavation building.

"Hmm, not what I was expecting," quipped Yun,

"What were you expecting, bunch of tents, trailers and big drills?" mocked Adams,

"Well…yes actually,"

Adams sighed, "This isn't the 20th century anymore Yun, buildings are a lot easier to set up. The actual excavation sight is underneath the building. Try to keep up."

Yun mouthed the words, "Ouch"

Unexpectedly, Ashley came up behind them and whispered, "don't you out rank her?"

"Yup," he said with a small pop, and with that he moved with the rest of the team into the building.

As Ash entered through the door she told Sanders to keep outside and watch their backs. The inside of the building wasn't much to look at, the main room was unorganized and messy. There was science equipment everywhere, as well as photographs, charts, and computers.

In addition, the lights seemed to be dying as it was noticeably dim inside.

"Alright, split into groups of two and sweep the building. Once we've cleared everywhere, we regroup here and call in the expert."

"Spark" corrected Yun

Ashley sighed, "right, Spark. We call in Spark."

( #*%&) (#*%& )(*%& ()#%&* )#(%&* )*%) (#%&)

In the space port, Yahachi and Rogers stood guard, waiting for the all clear from the L.C.

Yahachi stood silently and stoically with his pistol in hand, occasionally pacing back and forth. While his mouth said nothing, in his mind he attempted to recall a few haiku's he had heard while visiting his homeland. When he wasn't doing that, he was trying to come up with a few of his own.

He'd already done one about the space port they were in and the planet Mars. Currently, he was trying to make one up of his companion, Rogers.

Rogers on the other hand, was passing the time by whistling and attempting to hit a can he'd found with a few spent thermal clips. He was not having much luck.

"Alright…this one for sure," he tossed the clip but it sailed over and left the can standing, "damn it!"

The man noticed Yahachi had stopped pacing and appeared to be scanning the ceiling. He however, simply dismissed it as more of Yahachi's strange ways.

"Man, why can I not hit this damn can?"

Yahachi remained silent,

"I bet not even you can knock this thing over, eh Yahachi?"

The Asian man took note of Roger's challenge, walked over to the can, and lightly pushed it over. Rogers scowled, "Okay smart guy, I bet not even you can knock it over, by throwing a thermal clip."

Yahachi stood the can back up, then walked over to Rogers, holding his hand out expectantly. Rogers handed him a clip, fully expecting the man to fail.

Yahachi wound his arm back and tossed with expert execution. The clip shot forward and knocked the can right off its base.

Rogers jaw slackened,

"I was on my high school baseball team," explained Yahachi, "Japan likes baseball."

Rogers scowled, and muttered, "just luck"

Yahachi however did not hear him as his ears were suddenly affixed upon some other noise. It was a strange and very faint noise, like small nails being dug into metal. He also though he heard the ventilation shake just a bit.

But, it did not seem as though anything was truly there, just shadows.

"Hey, how about again?" challenged Rogers,

Yahachi listened for the noise again and heard nothing.

Perhaps there really was only shadow.

( ()#%*&)(#%&* )(#%&*)(&% )#&%) #(&%() #%&)

"How is it that I am always stuck with you?" asked Ash as she and Yun made their way through the halls of the building.

"Perhaps this is your subconscious way of telling you that you actually want to get with me," suggested Yun as he entered a room, "clear,"

"I really doubt that, I think this is more of a case of parasite then my subconscious," replied Ash as she checked the next room, "clear."

"Well, 'I think the lady doth protest too much'" grinned Yun,

"What?"

"Oh, sorry, its Shakespeare. You know, the guy with the funny collar from England or something?"

"Yeah, I know who he is, I'm just surprised you know about him," explained Ash,

"Well if you knew me better you wouldn't, I think I still have a copy of my book somewhere. There I analyze much of Shakespeare's work using different critical lenses; feminisim, marxisim, freudisim, archetypal…"

"You wrote a book?"

"Yup, must've been good, Oxford asked for an interview after about a year of it being on shelves. Personally I would've just been fine with the amount of money it brought in."

Yun noticed that Ashley had become very quiet and turned to see her giving him a very peculiar look. He remained silent, unsure as to how he act, but eventually his mind gave him an answer, "are you checking me out?"

That broke Ashley's trance and replaced her confusion with annoyance. She then pushed past him and went on to checking the rest of the rooms.

Yun was just about to follow after, when his ears suddenly picked up a light scratching noise. It sounded as though it was coming from, behind? The Biotic whipped around, pistols leveled, but found himself facing nothing.

Yun carefully lowered his weapons, though he saw nothing it still felt like eyes were upon him. He nervously chewed his lip and was about to take a better look around when Ashley called him, "Yun, get your ass up here soldier. You're falling behind."

"Y-yeah, coming!"

(* #*& (*&#%) (*&#%) *&#%*()&( )#&%)#&%)

"Watch those corners marines, never know what might be hiding there," warned Johnson,

_"Yeah, like the boogey man,"_ joked Sanders from his perch outside,

"Shut it Sanders, if I wanted to hear you talk I would have come back outside, stick my fist through your back, and use my hand to move your mouth like a puppet"

"Sorry Sarge,"

The Sergeant went back to watching over his men, Ross was in the process of opening a door, only to find it was locked.

"God damn it, hold on, let me just-"

Johnson took his rifle and used it to smash the window above Ross's head. He then jumped through and unlocked the door from inside.

"Or we could do that,"

Meanwhile Breznev and Adams cleared another room, there they made some interesting finds.

"Sarge! Come in here!" called Adams, "I think you need to see this!"

Johnson entered the room, "what we got?"

"It is a locker room," explained Breznev, gesturing to the rows of tall storage lockers, "come look at this"

He led Johnson to one of the lockers.

"God damn,"

The locker had four massive gashes in its door.

"They look very much like claw marks, yes?"

"Yeah, the way I see it, either Cerberus has given their boys claws or Sander's Grandma is in the building and needs a manicure."

"_I heard that Sarge,"_ crackled Sander over the COM,

"I know, that's why I said it,"

"If you liked that, then you're going to love this," interrupted Adams, she gestured them over to the back of the locker room. There they found something much stranger.

Four lockers had somehow been reduced to hole filled pieces of metal in a semi square forms, in addition, right in front of the lockers there was a massive gaping hole in the floor.

"Definitely Sander's Grandma," decided Johnson,

"My guess is some sort of acid," said Adams, "only something like that could have left marks like this,"

"So what, we're adding vandalism onto Cerberus's list of dirty deeds?" asked Johnson, "something doesn't sit right."

Breznev knelt down by the remains of the lockers and examined it closely, "this spray pattern, I recognize it. It is blood splatter, much like what happens when being shot by a rifle."

"Hmm, you get that L.C?" asked Johnson, who had been broadcasting their conversation.

"_I did and I don't like it, keep searching the building and keep your COM's open,"_

"You heard the lady, keep moving,"

"_Uh…Sarge,"_ blared King's voice,

"What is it Private?"

"_Well…we found something that looks a lot like the aftermath of a teenage sex party."_

(*)#%( &)#%*(& #()%*& )#&*%) &#%) &#%) #&%)#&% )

King and Octavia had found their way into the building's cafeteria, there they had made a horrific discovery.

"Either that or, they were cutting up the beef with a chainsaw,"

Blood was splattered all over the tables, the walls, even the ceiling. Yet strangely there was not a single body to show for the massive carnage that must have taken place here. Even stranger was that there was clear evidence of a gun fight, small pockets of gunfire dotted the floor and the surrounding walls.

There were a few places where it look like the same acid that Breznev and Adams had found was in play but still no bodies, it was disturbing. To add to the already unnerving atmosphere, the lights were damaged, most of them had been broken. Those that still worked flickered on and off dimly.

Octavia knelt down and dipped two fingers into a puddle of the red liquid.

"Ah, girl, don't touch it!"

The woman ignored her companion and rubbed it between her armored fingers, "definitely blood, but it's not fresh. I'd say at least a day or two old."

"Where the hell are the fellas that left here?" asked King, "not like they just poured it out and went on walking."

"_This is Yun, we found a body,"_

(*# &%)( &#%() *&#%&( )&%#) &#% #)

"And it's definitely not pretty," he finished,

While clearing out the rest of the science team's quarters, they had stumbled onto the corpse of a lone Cerberus soldier. His body was propped up against a bed and his blood had pooled onto the floor in a sizeable puddle.

"What the hell happened to this guy?" Ashley asked aloud,

The man's chest had been torn apart, the size of the cavity was the size of a dinner plate. Other than that single gaping wound he seemed relatively untouched. However his helmet was off, showing his Reaper tech augmented body.

"Must've a large caliber round," suggested Yun, "can't imagine what else could do it,"

"No," said Ashley, "the wound doesn't go all the way through and it looks more like something burst out that push in."

Yun sighed, "I've got a really bad feeling about this…wait, what room number is this?"

"103, why?"

Yun didn't answer and instead ran out of the room and down the hall. Ashley immediately followed after, exiting just in time to see Yun enter a door a few rooms down.

"Alison?! Alison, are you in here?" no reply, "damn it!"

Ashley followed him into the room, the Corporal seemed quite frazzled. The man sighed, "I guess it was a bit much to ask for."

"Do you know who lived here?" asked Ash,

Yun grabbed a photo from a bed side table and handed it to Ashley. In it was a young woman perhaps a few years younger than herself. She wore a pair of thin rimmed glasses, dark hair tied up into a neat bun and a very attractive face with near flawless skin.

In the photo she was with a young man whom Ashley soon recognized as Yun. The picture must have been taken a few years back as in the picture he did not have the Mohawk that he currently had.

"My sister," he finally said, "she worked here…I thought she might hid in her room but I guess it wasn't very lucky."

Yun lowered his gaze and sat down on the small bed in the room. He ran his mechanical fingers through the sheets as if trying to touch his sister through them. He grabbed the pillow and stroked it softly, then he remembered, he couldn't feel anything and tossed it away.

Suddenly he stood up and slammed his fist into the wall, "god damn it!"

The wall groaned under the force his blow, which had left a large dent in the seemingly sturdy steel.

"I'm sure she's fine Yun, Cerberus doesn't kill civilians needlessly," it was lie, but right now Yun needed a lie. Ashley knew what it was like to not know if your family was fine or not. She also knew what it was like to love your sister and to know that she was in danger and you couldn't be there to protect her.

"Thanks L.C, but you don't need to make stuff up," he said, calling her bluff, "and besides, I'm not sure it's Cerberus we should be worrying about right now."

With that he stood up and walked out of the room but not before taking the photo out of the frame and folding it into his pocket.

When he left, Ashley placed her finger to her COM unit, carefully switching to her private channel with Johnson.

"Johnson?"

"_Yes ma'am?"_

"Be on the lookout for Yun's sister. She's a bit shorter than me, has dark hair probably in a bun and wears thin rimmed glasses. She was a scientist working on the excavation so she'll probably have a lab coat on or something."

"_Of course ma'am,"_

"How's the sweep going?"

"_We've secured our side of the building, not much here except unanswered questions,"_

"Same here, tell everyone to regroup at the rendezvous point and contact Yahachi and Rogers to call in Spark,"

"_Yes ma'am"_

*(# *(&% ()#*%&)(#&% ()#&% )#&%)%&)% #&)) #)%(*&)

After meeting at the rendezvous point and putting together all their findings, the team came to the conclusion that they had no idea what was going on. Ashley theorized that perhaps this all had something to do with the Reaper find.

She then ordered for Johnson to take Octavia, King, and Adams to go recon ahead. Leaving her, Yun, and Breznev to wait for Spark, Yahachi, and Rogers to show up and join them.

Ashley found it rather awkward as the entire time that they waited, Yun did not speak a single word. Instead he simply continued to look at a holographic map of the colony via omni-tool.

Occasionally he seemed to mouth a few words but remained silent.

Finally, Ashley asked Breznev, "what's he doing?"

"He searches for his sister," whispered the Russian as he sharpened his knives, "I cannot blame him, after what the two of them have been through,"

"What do you mean?"

Breznev turned away from his knives for a moment, thinking on whether or not to tell a friend's personal story to a stranger.

"Gabriel and his Sister, when they were young they ran away from home. Gabriel was 14 at the time and Alison was 12. He took care of her, dropped from school, got job, took care of her, so on. When Alison finally go off to college, Yun join army to help pay," Breznev trailed off, "this is his story, if you want rest of it, ask him."

Ashley nodded, she began to wonder if she should when a knock came from the door. In came Rogers, followed by Yahachi, then finally Spark.

"Spark!" greeted Yun, closing his map and walking over to clasp the Geth on the shoulder, "how have you been?"

"I have been adequate Yun Corporal, I am prepared to fulfill my assignment," replied Spark in its computerized voice.

"Great, but listen, we've got some weird shit going down here so you need to be on your guard," warned Yun,

The synthetic drew a Geth SMG, "I am combat proficient, you need not fear for me."

"When you say weird shit, what you mean?" asked Rogers,

"I mean weird sci-fi horror don't know what the hell happened here shit," replied Yun,

"Enough," interrupted Ashley, "let's get moving,"

5 minutes later they rejoined with the rest of the squad, there Johnson called Ashley over to the security room.

"We found this security cam recording," explained Johnson, "I think you'll want to watch this, cause I sure as hell can't make heads or tails of it."

Johnson started the video, it started with a simple shot of the cafeteria. Then a dozen Cerberus soldiers walked into the room in formation. They must have been special forces as they all wore Assault armor.

One of them had his helmet off, showing his non augmented face.

Cerberus operative without Reaper tech grafted into his system, already something was off. He was a bald man, with a hard face, handlebar mustache and goatee on his chin.

The Operative was lugging around a small cylindrical canister, he set it down on a table while his team formed a perimeter around him.

He opened the canister briefly to make sure whatever was inside was safe.

That's when a light suddenly blew out. All guns turned towards the newly created darkness, then another light blew, then another, and another.

The Cerberus Operative drew a pistol and gave a command not to shoot without a clear target.

Eventually so many lights were blown out that the only one still active was the one above their table. That's when the first Cerberus soldier was suddenly grabbed by the shadows and dragged into darkness, screaming and kicking the entire way.

The remaining troops opened fire at unseen enemies.

They sprayed automatic fire into the shadows and it hissed back at them. Suddenly something tackled a soldier, going so fast that Ashley only saw a blur of black. The soldier was shoved into the shadows where he screamed his lungs out.

Gradually, one by one, the soldiers fell to the dark until there was only four left.

The leader must have realized the futility of staying, because he ordered his men to make a dash for the exit.

The survivors walked out of the camera's view and the video stopped.

Ashley took a deep breath and tried to process what she'd just seen. It was obvious that something had torn the Cerberus forces to shreds, which would explain why there had been so few of them out in the colony.

Ash dreaded to think of what the same enemy might have done to the colonists.

"We need to get down there, now!"

Meanwhile

"Yun Corporal"

"Yeah Spark?" asked Yun as he enjoyed his cigarette,

"Would you willing to help this platform in an experiment?"

Yun raised an eyebrow and took another huff of tobacco, "depends on the experiment"

"Please take off your helmet,"

Yun did so, the air inside of the building might have been a bit stale but it was breathable.

"Now please put this on," the Geth produced a strange little device that reminded him of a Kuwashii visor. He took the device and fitted it on the right side of his face.

"How do I look?"

"…I do not understand this question, your tone suggests what humans call joking, yet your question seems serious in nature based on the history of your race."

"I meant…never mind, now what?"

"There is an activation button on the side"

Yun pressed the button and immediately the device lit up his vision with holographic images not unlike the HUD of his helmet, except this was much better.

"Wow, you should share this with the Alliance, we'd start trusting you right away," said Yun as he explored his new tool, "hey, this has extranet connection! Oooh…oh, yes daddy likes!"

"I believe it is against Alliance protocol to use equipment to look for explicit material categorized as pornography,"

"Yeah, but I'm a real shitty soldier," admitted Yun, "so what, you just wanted to give me this awesome new toy? Is it Geth Christmas or something?"

"A moment please," Spark disconnected a wire from the back of his 'head', then plugged it into the back of Yun's new visor. The Geth's head light dimmed for a few moments, than became bright again. "The download is complete."

"You did what now?"

"I downloaded a section of my programming into your visor, I can now see whatever you see…why are you watching two women have…"

"No reason, no reason," interrupted Yun, "so anyway, cool."

"Thank you for your assistance in this experiment Yun Corporal, your custom requires that you now ask my assistance in a matter, should you need it."

"Well, actually there is one thing. You see I have a sister and…"

"Yun!" interrupted Johnson, "get your ass over to this elevator and bring the light bulb!"

"I'll tell you on the way, come on!"

(*#)& (#%*&) #(*%& *)#(%&() *#&%)%& #)()

Officer Vilmos rushed down the hallway, flanked by his two remaining men. In his right hand he carried the package, in left hand his Talon Submachine gun.

His lungs heaved as he pushed his body to continue running, it was times like this that he wished that he had accepted the augmentation. Then maybe he wouldn't be suffering from exhaustion.

Even so, he was still alive whereas most of his squad, who had been augmented, was dead. That was enough to tell him that he didn't need Reaper tech to be good.

"This is Officer Vilmos to Captain Wilson, Captain are you there?" the Officer was rewarded with static, "Captain! God damn it, something's wrong,"

That's when they heard an all too familiar hiss,

"Oh shit!"

"Open fire!"

Vilmos raised his weapon and fired into the oncoming tide of teeth and claws.

**End**

**A/N**

**Yeah, Chapter 4 is done!**

**Chapter 5 will be released next week, probably around Tuesday.**

**I posted some new future story ideas on my profile page, if you've got the time go check them out and tell me what you think. I'm even making a new poll.**

**Please review and favorite**


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Bugs Hunt

The team of Alliance Marines ,plus Geth, gathered themselves onto a large elevator that would drop them down into their destination. Ashley pressed the button on the elevator control and sent them down into the darkness.

"So what's the new Sarge?" asked Rogers, "what we up against? The boogey man?"

"Might just be private," replied Johnson, "we've got unidentified hostiles in the vicinity, they like to hit from the dark so keep your lights on and watch for movement. Don't open fire until you've got a clear shot, don't want to waste ammo."

As the elevator continued to slowly descend, Yun whispered to Spark, "so anyway, my sister was one of the scientists working here, if you could keep an eye…er, visual process unit, out for her that'd be great."

"Acknowledged, what does your sister look like?"

Yun pulled out the picture he had taken from her room out and showed it to the Geth. After a moment, the machine said, "We will find your sister Yun Corporal."

"Thanks man,"

"You refer to me as man, I am a synthetic and have no gender,"

"It's like saying buddy," explained Yun, when the Geth made the equivalent of a confused face, he chuckled and assured, "don't worry, you'll understand eventually."

The elevator suddenly came to a grinding halt and all eyes turned to the door. It smoothly slid open and revealed to them their battlefield.

"Holy shit" muttered Ross, voicing everyone's opinions.

What stood before them was not the dark dirt and rock tunnels they'd been expecting. What they saw the dark, disgusting, tunnels from hell.

The walls looked organic and the ground beneath them felt spongy. All around them was some sort of disgusting black substance that made everyone feel as though they were inside of something alive rather than beneath the ground.

Even the air seemed foreign, it was humid and there seemed to be an unnatural fog floating around, worse there was a distinct smell of blood.

"Alright, move in," ordered Ashley, then added, "slowly"

"Aye ma'am, Octavia take point," ordered Johnson,

One by one the marines entered the tunnels, all very reluctant to do so. Even their Geth comrade seemed extra careful while moving in formation.

"All hope abandon, ye who enter in, these words in somber colour I beheld," whispered Yun.

Ashley recognized the verse as part of the Inferno by Dante Alighieri. She found herself agreeing with the passage, this place definitely made her feel like abandoning hope.

"I've got a real bad feeling about this," voiced Rogers from the flank,

"Boy you've always got a bad feeling about something," growled Johnson,

Octavia in the front, followed by Adams, moved nervously further into the catacombs until they came upon a horrific sight.

"Jesus," whispered the biotic,

"Sarge, L.C, you need to see this!"

"One more thing to add to the list," muttered Johnson as he and the Spectre came up.

However, once they caught sight of what the two women had discovered, even they were unnerved.

Stuck, five feet high, onto the wall of the tunnel was a body. Upon closer inspection it was a Batarian body and his chest, just like the soldier Ashley had seen, had been torn right open.

She shifted her vision further down the tunnel and saw even more bodies of all different species, human, Turian, Salarian, Asari, all grafted to the wall by some sort of hardened resin, with their chests torn open from the inside.

"Dear God, what the hell is this?" she asked nervously.

The squad moved further in, passing the bodies with more than a few retching at the sight. As Yun passed the bodies he paused briefly when his eye caught something on the ground. He bent over to pick it up and held it up to his face.

It was a strange, pale, bony, spider looking creature. It was dead and thus petrified, it had no visible face, but had a long thin tail in the back and eight disturbingly long legs.

"What do you make of this?" asked Yun, handing the thing to Spark.

"Unknown, but will store specimen for analysis," replied the Geth before placing it in a square container on its back.

Eventually after a few more minutes of slow careful walking, the team arrived at their destination.

"There it is, the vault," said Ash, "Spark, come here!"

Spark did so, "what do you make of those symbols on the door?"

"Unknown, some symbols are familiar and some are not, but I will record them to my memory banks and analyze them further," said the Geth,

"What do you recognize?" asked Ash,

The synthetic's light blinked a few times, then it turned to Ashly and said, "Williams Spectre, it is a warning."

Yun walked over to a wall where he found the corpse of a young female. He experimentally touched her with the barrel of his pistol, when there was no movement he carefully pushed up her head.

Her eyes suddenly flew open.

"Holy…we've got a survivor!" he yelled, gaining the attention of King, Ross, and Rogers.

"Please, kill me," coughed the woman,

"Don't worry ma'am, everything's going to be okay, we'll get you out and-"

"Kill me!" she said, this time louder,

Suddenly the woman convulsed forward and the sound of something breaking inside could be heard. The woman let out a strangled gurgle of pain as her chest seemed to be being pushed outward.

"Kill me!"

Blood began to soak into her shirt,

"Everyone get back!" warned Yun,

"Kill me!" finally, something burst right out of the woman's chest. A small worm like creature with tiny teeth and no eyes, it screeched loudly as it dragged itself out of the cavity it had just created.

"Shit shoot it!" yelled Rogers,

King was the first to respond, quickly stepping up and firing a quick burst at the alien. It caught a round and exploded into two pieces.

"What, the hell, just happened?" asked Ross, breathing heavily like the others of the squad.

His answer was a low yet loud hiss.

Yun found himself backing up, eager to get back to the rest of the squad.

"A warning?" asked Ashley, "a warning for what?"

Before the Geth could respond, it suddenly stiffened and announced, "movement detected, fourteen unidentified readings, we are surrounded."

Ashley immediately shouldered her rifle, "everyone look sharp, we've got contacts!"

"Time for Sasha to let loose," smirked Octavia,

"Let's rock marines!" yelled Johnson,

"Closest reading, ten meters," announced Spark,

Yun continued backing up until he hit something, he whipped around and found that he had backed into the L.C.

"Nine meters,"

The two immediately put their back together again and raised their weapons.

"I don't see anything!" yelled Ross,

"Eight meters,"

Yahachi raised his pistol and readied his sword.

"Seven meters"

"I'm telling you there's nothing out there!"

"Six meters"

"I can't see anything either!" yelled Adams,

Yet despite that, Spark continued, "Five meters"

"For godsakes, there's nothing here!" assured Rogers, "you're motion detector is off!"

"Four meters"

"That's where I am and there's nothing here!"

"He's right," said Ross, "I'm right next to him and I don't see anything"

"You ever get that feeling, that you've just kicked the hornet's nest?" asked Yun, sweat dripping down his forhead.

Ashley, beginning to breath harshly, replied, "sometimes"

"Well," Yun licked his lips, "I'm getting that feeling right now,"

"Three meters"

"There is nothing here!" Rogers yelled again, "I've been scanning the whole area and-AHHHHHHHH!"

"Rogers!" screamed Ross as he watched his companion get dragged up a wall and into the shadows by some sort of demon out of hell.

Another hiss and the walls suddenly came to life. The man quickly shouldered his weapon, ready to fight when something jumped onto his back and tackled him to the ground.

He turned to look up, just in time to see a row of silver teeth open up and allow an inner mouth to slowly come out.

He had just enough time to scream.

"Movement!" yelled Octavia as she fired into the walls at any flicker of movement, King along side her.

"There!" Yun shouted, pointing as two aliens crawled out from a hole in the wall. He immediately opened fire, gunning down both of them.

"Contact!"

Every marine opened fire wildly as their training gave way to panick. Creatures, tall and dark, with long sharp tails and nasty black claws seemed to simply break off from their surroundings and attack the humans.

Ashley fired her rifle, blowing one alien into chunks.

Another jumped at her from the ceiling, she turned to fire but was too slow and it knocked her onto her back. She held back the creature with her weapon, barely keeping out of range of its deadly inner mouth as it struck out again and again.

Yun quickly noticed and shoved it off with a biotic wave, then riddled it with bullets.

Johnson spotted a pair running towards the squad, he shouldered his rifle and expertly shot both, killing them each with short bursts.

However he didn't notice another pop out from the ground and lung at him with its teeth. He instinctively threw up his arm and allowed the alien to bite it.

The teeth sunk through his armor and found flesh, Johnson yelped and dropped his weapon. But soon regained his composure and growled, "is that the hardest you can bite motherfucker!"

He wound up his right fist and slammed it once, twice into the side of the alien's head. It recoiled and he quickly put it down with a few shots from his side arm.

Yahachi fired calmly and with precision at any alien that came at him, putting each down with a cool deadliness. When one got to close he immediately slashed through its abdomen.

The alien fell into two pieces, but some of its blood fell onto Yahachi's arm. He immediately noticed that it made his armor smoke and soon realized that it was burning through! He quickly detached the armor and tossed it away.

"Their blood, it's acid!" he yelled out, his sword had been treated to be extremely resistant to any corrosive liquids. But he knew his body was not as durable.

Unfortunately Breznev was already in the process of stabbing a xeno when Yahachi had voiced his alarm. The Russian's blade sunk deep into the best, but immediately he recoiled when his knife became nothing more than a useless slag of melted metal.

The xeno died but some of its blood fell onto Breznev's thigh, he screamed and fell as the acid burned through.

Adams brought her biotics to bare and slammed two of the aliens into a wall. She fired into them, putting them both down.

Then claws came up from the ground and grabbed her by the ankle, she was so caught off guard she didn't respond when they began dragging her down into the hole it had sprung out of.

"No!" she yelled as she fired wildly into the hole. More hands came up, grabbing her body and pulling her down further as she tried to fight.

King was there, grabbing her hand and pulling with all his strength to save her.

"Please! Don't let go, don't let go!" she cried,

"Octavia!" called King,

The British woman quickly came over and began firing into the hole, something screeched in pain. Then something spat up a glob of green fluid and struck Octavia's weapon. Instantly the weapon began to melt, rendering it useless.

More claws came out from the hole and grabbed Adams by the face.

"No! No! No!" she cried out as she slowly sunk further and further into the dark,

Something struck out and caught King in the shoulder, he yelled out in pain as it slicked his flesh and caused him to let go.

Adams sunk into the darkness, screaming as she went.

"No!" yelled Octavia as she reached down in a vain attempt to save her already lost squadmate.

"Forget her!" yelled Johnson, grabbing her by the shoulder, "she's gone!"

Ashley fired at another flicker of movement, by now she was shooting at just about anything that moved.

That's when another alien jumped down in front of her, somehow in the heat of the moment she still managed to notice something different about this one.

This one was smoother, looked more moist and saturated with water. It lacked the same blade tipped tail the other had and unlike the others who had elongated, cylindrical heads, this one had shorter head that branched off in the back like two horns.

Ashley realized that its head was very similar to that of a Salarian, she even caught the detail that it's feet and hands were webbed, just like the amphibious species that she'd seen stuck to the wall of the tunnel, no, not tunnel, hive!

The Salarian xeno was suddenly gunned down by a wave of fire. Ashley turned to see that it had come from Spark, she nodded a thanks then yelled, "Retreat! Back to the surface!"

"Marines! We are leaving!" yelled Johnson,

"_What the hell's going on in there?"_ blared Sander's voice, _"I'm seeing movement all over the damn building!"_

Ashley ignored Sanders and focused on getting what remained of her team out.

"Retreat!" she yelled,

"Go! Go!" shouted Yun as he fired both of his Eagles. As he kept the xenos at bay, he saw a flicker of movement that did not belong to a hostile. He turned and just for a brief moment, he thought he saw the backside of his sister.

"Alison?" her form disappeared around a corner, "Alison wait!"

"Come on!" growled Johnson, grabbing him by the shoulder,

"No, wait, I thought I saw-"

"We're leaving!" roared the Sergeant, dragging the Corporal into the elevator with the rest of the team.

All of the humans were breathing heavily, exhausted by their near brush with death.

"What the hell were those things?" asked Octavia,

"I think, they, are what took down Cerberus," said Ashley between gasps for breath.

"Jesus Christ did you see how many of them there were?" asked King,

"Yeah, I did," said Ashley, she then radioed Sander, "Sanders, be advised, we are coming out of the building, most likely with hostiles on our tail."

"_Roger that"_,

"Alright, we need to fall back to spaceport and call for reinforcements," said Ashley, "check your weapons, make sure you've got a full clip and we'll make it through this."

"You heard her," barked Johnson, loading a fresh clip into his rifle, "keep your guns down range, fingers on your triggers and we'll all go home in one piece."

"Yes sir!"

Ashley noticed that Yun had not joined in, his eyes were glued to the floor and they looked as though he were staring off at somewhere very far. He was also silently mouthing words, but what they were Ash couldn't tell.

She placed a hand on his shoulder and shook him, he immediately returned to them and let out a breath he'd been holding.

"Are you okay?" she asked,

"Yeah," he replied with a small nod, "I'm good"

The elevator came to a stop and the remaining humans found themselves back inside the excavation building. Strangely enough, the marines found it much more calming than the first time they'd been in it.

"Alright let's move,"

(*#( %&)&*% ()#&*% )#&% )#&*%() #%& )%)

Sanders had found a nice spot on top of a three story tall building adjacent to the excavation sight. For the most party he'd sat up there bored out of his mind with nothing to do. But just a few moments ago he'd started hearing the screams of his team mates, they'd been yelling about some sort of monsters, things coming out of the walls, all sorts of weird stuff.

Then Sanders had seen movement around the building, not on the ground, but literally on it, crawling on the walls. For afar and in his scope, they looked like giant bugs, giant bugs from some sort of dark abyss in the lowest parts of hell. If the devil kept an ant farm, this is definitely what would be in it.

"L.C, I'm seeing some weird critters up here, advise?"

"_Shoot them, shoot them now!"_

"Roger," Sanders took in a breath and held it, his crosshairs fell upon the first bug. He squeezed the trigger and watched the bug fall from the building and hit the ground with an audible crunch.

The sniper then moved to the next one, it met a similar fate. The next one he spotted on a building right next to his own. It looked slightly different, the back of its head instead of being round was more angular. In addition it possessed several glowing green pouches on the sides of its long cranium.

Sanders saw it look up at him. It reared its head back then lunged forth, hacking out a glob of some liquid. The projectile came up short and instead hit the side of Sander's window. The effects were immediate as the liquid ate through the metal infrastructure.

"Shit!" he cursed in surprise, he quickly sighted the acid hacking creature and blew its head off, "spit at me will you?"

"_Sanders, this is Williams, we're exiting the building right now"_

Sanders returned his attention to the entrance of the excavation building and saw his squad stream out into the open.

"Roger that, I see you. I'll provide-"

_Hiiiiissssssssssssssss!_

Sanders felt his blood run cold, he heard heavy breath, he felt the heavy breath just on the back of his neck.

He slowly turned around and saw thin black lips give way to flashing silver teeth.

( *#&)%( &*#%) (&#%)( &#%)( &#%() &*)

"Sanders? Are you still there?" asked Ashley as they moved out into the streets.

"_AAAHHHHHHHHH!"_

"Sanders?! Sanders?! Fuck! He's gone!"

"We need to leave, now!" yelled Breznev,

"Everybody double time to the Space port!"

"Contact!" shouted Octavia,

Black forms appeared upon the buildings surrounding them, some made their way down and leapt at them with incredible force, others stayed up high and spat barrages of acid down upon them.

The marines found themselves in a running battle, as they attempted to keep moving and alive at the same time.

A group of the black creatures rushed at them, hissing as they came. Yun quickly threw a biotic shockwave, scattering them like ragdolls and putting them down with quick bursts.

Ashley found her weapon perfect for their situation, the Revenant's large clip size allowed her to keep firing when other's had to reload. She sprayed a trio of the bugs crawling down a wall, knocking them all to the ground.

As she reloaded she caught sight of a group of acid spitting variants gathering on a the roof of a house.

"King! Roof!"

"On it!" the man shouldered his Grenade launcher and fired, the resulting explosion tore the bugs to pieces, "Yeah haha!"

Breznev who was forced to lean on Yahachi for support, on account of his injuries, noticed that groups of bugs were running through the streets on both sides of their team.

"They are surrounding us!" he warned,

The prophecy soon came true as up ahead both groups of xenos converged into one massive wave coming right at them.

"Open fire!"

All seven humans fired into the mass of black claws and silver teeth, their bullets took down many of the bugs but did not stem the black tide of death. Every time one of them had to reload the swarm came closer, the humans tried to back up but soon found other bugs attempting to flank them.

"We're not going to make it!" yelled Johnson,

Yun fired his pistols into an oncoming group, one spat acid and hit the Eagle in his right hand. He immediately recoiled and dropped the now useless weapon. He then lashed out with his biotics, grabbing the offending xeno and crushing it into the ground.

To his side he spotted one slip through their defenses.

"King watch out!" the man turned too late, the xeno struck out with its claws and caught the man in the side. His armor blocked some of the attack but the attack dug through and found flesh.

King screamed but had just enough strength to kick the xeno away and riddle it with lead.

"Spark! Spark!" he called to the Geth as it gunned down a pair of xenos, "we need to get out of here, any ideas!"

"I calculate the possibility of surviving here is 0.0000567945420-"

"Yeah, yeah, where gives us the best possibility?" interrupted the biotic,

"The Colony Town hall,"

"You hear that beautiful?!"

"I did, let's do it!" Ashley called back, "all units retreat back the way we came and make for the Town Hall!"

"Yes ma'am! Everyone, go, go! Run and shoot! Yun!"

"On it!" the biotic began building up as much power as he possibly could. His body began to glow with a blue fire that completely covered his entire body. Ashley had to take a brief moment to stare as the energy gathered around him like a massive storm.

Even some of the xenos took a small pause as they neared the powerhouse of biotic energy.

Just as the first of them began to reach him, Yun shot both his hands forward and unleashed all of his power at once. The entire wave of black creatures was blown back a dozen meters by a single massive blue blast that completely destroyed those that had been too close.

When the last of the built up power had left him, and most if not all xenos had at least been knocked out, Yun found himself standing yet drained of energy.

"Might've…over done it," he whispered, his legs buckled and his lids became heavy, he took a few weak steps back before he felt himself fall.

But was caught by surprise when something halted his drop, he looked up to see Ashley's face.

"Hey," he smirked,

"Come on, they're not going to stay down for long," she said, noticing that already some of the xenos were beginning to regain conscious.

Yun wrapped his arm around her for support and together they caught up with the rest of the team.

"Which way to the town hall?" asked Octavia,

"This way," led Spark,

As they made their way to sanctuary, Yun eventually felt energy gradually flowing back into him though he still had a splitting headache from using so much biotic power at once.

But as he leaned against L.C Williams, his eyes wandered to an alley they were passing and for a brief moment he thought he saw someone he knew, his sister.

She was afraid, she did not see him and ran deeper into the alley to get away from whatever was hunting her.

"Alison!" he called out, but she did not hear him. How had she escaped the hive? How had she survived for so long? These questions did not concern him, "Alison!"

He broke off from Ashley and dashed for the alleyway.

"Yun! Get your ass back here!" demanded Johnson,

"Go, I'll get him!" said Ashley, charging off after Yun.

Yun entered the alley, his pistol raised as he scanned for any danger. He rounded the corner, his eyes intently looking for his sister. He whispered carefully, "Alison? Alison where are you?"

"Gabe?" said a quiet voice, yet one he recognized immediately.

"Alison!" he called with a hushed voice, "come out, it's me! Its Gabe!"

There was a rustled behind a garbage can and out came his sister. Her hair was disheveled, her face was covered in dirt and blood, her clothing was torn, but she was alive. Yun had never felt so relieved in his entire life, a smile even touched his lips and he felt his eyes begin to become moist.

She ran towards him and he held his arms out to her, but the moment was not to last.

Something jumped onto Yun's back and Alison screamed. Yun immediately reached over his shoulder, grabbed his attacker and tossed it onto the ground. The xeno screeched before Yun crushed its elongated head beneath his boot with a sickening crunch.

Then there was hiss and Yun whipped around just in time to see another pair of xenos, making its way down the wall. Yun lashed out with his biotics, ignoring the sharp rise in his headache.

One of the xenos was hit and crushed against the wall with a squelch.

The other jumped, Yun caught it in midair and shot it twice.

Then another one jumped down onto the ground in front of Yun. This one he noticed was of a different variety, it had only four fingers whereas the others had six. This one also had a set of mandibles around its mouth, as well as a boney protrusion sticking out from both of its forearms like remnants of a wing, and other decidedly avian like features.

He had not time to try and figure out why it looked different, as it leaped at him and pinned him to the ground.

Alison screamed, "Gabe!"

"Run!" he ordered as he tried to fight off his attacker, "Run!"

The xeno's inner mouth shot out at him, just barely coming short.

"Get off me!" he growled, "Get off!"

Suddenly the avian bug was off of him, its screech of frustration was followed by the thundering of a rifle. Yun looked up to see that he had been saved, yet again, by the L.C.

She offered him a hand and he took it, "Alison!"

"Your sister?"

"She was here, just now, I saw her!" he explained, he turned around to see that she was no longer in the alley with them, "Alison! Where are you?!"

"Keep it down!" ordered Ashley,

"But she's out there!" he protested, "Alison!"

"_Yun Corporal, we advise you to come to the town hall"_ came Spark's voice,

"I can't, I need to find my sister"

"_Acknowledged, but the colony town hall contains a room with camera feed around the entire settlement. We would have a better chance of finding her that way,"_ reasoned the Geth,

"That's…that's a good idea, let's go to the town hall," he decided,

Ashley looked at him with concern clear on her face, "Corporal, are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, I'm just…let's go"

Ashley decided not to push the issue further and nodded, but silently she made a note to keep her eyes on him.

( #(*%&(#)*%&( #)&%) *#&%) &*#%)&%*# )

Officer Vilmos and his two remaining men, came to a grinding halt in the Space port security room. All of them were out of breath now, augmentation or no. They'd been running and fighting for the past hour, the enemy was relentless, continuously attacking, yet just when they had been about to be over run, the bugs started to let up.

Vilmost believed he heard gunfire somewhere, maybe there were some last holdouts among the colonists. Whatever it was, it was god send and it gave the three of them their opening to escape to the Space port. Now it was just a matter of getting off the planet.

Their ship still wasn't responding which meant that something must've happened to it, Vilmost suspected Alliance.

"Let's rest for now," he said, holding the package close to himself, "we'll figure out how to escape later"

( *#(%))%(#*& #()*%& #)%&() #%&()%& #)

After arriving at the Town Hall, the team had quickly swept the entire building and found it devoid of any bugs. They then set about making it defendable, barring windows and doors with furniture, memorizing escape routes, and setting shifts.

The center of their operations was the Town hall security room which happened to have camera feeds of just about every corner of the entire colony. It was useful for keeping tabs on their new enemy and for making sure nothing got into their new base.

King managed to find an emergency armory filled with various weapons and plenty of thermal clips. None of the weapons were high end but they were good enough for what was needed.

"Alright, so what's the plan?" asked King when they'd finished boarding up the last window.

"We call in our back up and we wipe out these monsters," said Ashley, "that's the plan."

"Sound's good to me," said Johnson, "bring in the marines and soon this place will be cleaner than a baby's bottom."

"Alright, I'll contact the Salem, I want at least one of us on the camera's at all times and the rest of us patrolling this floor. You hear so much as a creak in the floor and a tapping in the walls you radio in. We can't let even one of those things inside."

Everyone nodded,

"Alright, get to it,"

With that everyone dispersed, save Breznev who was taking inventory.

"How are we doing on medical supplies?" asked Ash,

"Not good, we've got a few more packs of medi-gel but nothing left to treat acid burns, I used up what I had on Yahachi and King. Still plenty of pain killers and bandages though,"

"Alright, you get some rest, we'll probably need your skills later"

Breznev nodded and went off to catch a few minutes of sleep. Ashley decided now would be a good time to check in on Yun. He hadn't left the security room in a while and she was worried about his mental state. Knowing that his sister was out there with those things must've been horrible, Ash knew that she would feel the same if one of her sister was out there.

As she opened the door to the Security room she ran into Yun.

"Oh…hey L.C, how's it going out there?" asked the man,

"Fine, I hope. How're you holding up?"

"I'll be fine, Spark plugged himself into the cameras so that he could watch them all at the same time. If he see's anything he'll sound an alert," said Yun, he then turned his gaze low, "I hope he sees something."

"Yun, don't worry, if your sister is out there we'll find her. I'm going to call in our back up, once we've wiped out these things we'll find your sister."

"Yeah, I guess," he said solemnly,

"I know what's like to worry for your sister,"

That caught Yun' attention, "you've got one?"

"Three, all younger,"

"Oh, wow," he said with a small chuckle, "and I had trouble with only one"

Ashley found herself chuckling as well, "wasn't a picnic with my family either."

She gestured to pair of chairs and the two of them sat down.

"I heard that you raised your sister, I can relate, with my father in the military I had to help raise mine too."

"Yeah, she's part of the reason why I still don't really know what the heck trigonometry is for. Never got passed that, was too busy working" he said with a smile, "but Alison, I never had to worry about her grades. If her teachers taught her something, she'd learn it faster than anyone else, the little genius."

"Heh, I know how you feel, one of my sisters, Sarah, she was always better than me and CQC. I'm more of a straight puncher, her, she just kind of dances around whoever she fights," said Ash with a certain amount of nostalgia, "what about your sister?"

"She was always into science, never quite sure what kind of science. One day it was medicinal, the next physics, the day after that chemistry, I could never keep track," he admitted, "I never told her that all the classes she wanted to take was killing us financially. I just let her live in a world where there weren't that many problems. But, I think she knew, just never showed it. She was actually the one who installed my new arms."

"Really? That smart?"

"That smart," he assured, "now she's out there, in the cold, being hunted."

"We'll get her through this," assured Ashley putting her hand on his shoulder. Silence hung for a moment before Ash asked, "so, you wrote a book?"

"Yeah," said Yun quietly, "weird huh? Never went to college, but wrote a book. I never expected it to go anywhere. I just read a lot of old stuff while I was starting out in the army, a lot of Shakespear. Then one day I just started writing about what I thought about all of it."

"How'd it become a book?"

Yun sighed and looked up as though trying to remember, "one of my squad mates took a look at it and suggested trying to get it published. I thought he was just joking, but one day he I get a letter from like five different publishers, say they want to publish my writing. Apparently he sent them my stuff without telling me."

"After that, I just let it be. Got quite a lot of money from it,"

"Then why are you still in the army? Most people would settle down if they struck gold,"

"Well…I'm not really sure. I guess I just didn't feel like leaving, I didn't want to leave my family. So I sent most of it to my sister, to help her pay for college."

"That was sweet of you,"

"Yeah, to be honest me and her had been growing a bit distant as of late. With me in the army and her with her science we never really talk anymore. She even got herself a boyfriend, a Turian. I never got to threaten the guy with breaking his legs if he ever hurt her," Yun chuckled sadly, "I missed her birthday too."

Yun's face began to droop and his gaze fell to the floor again. He shook his head and let out a heavy sigh, "some brother I am."

He quickly reached into his pocket and pulled out his packet of cigarettes and his lighter. He slid one out and bit on it, lit it, then took a quick drag. He offered the packet to Ashley but she declined.

Yun took another drag as he put back his pack and lighter, then let out a puff of smoke, "I wonder if God hates me"

Ashley furrowed her brows, "I didn't take you as someone who believed in God"

"If you found a watch on the ground, would you say that it just sprung out of somewhere? No, you'd say it was made by someone. A living being is millions of times more complicated than a watch, how can anyone say we weren't created by God?"

"I know what you mean,"

"You too?"

"Mmhmm"

"Wow, there's more of us than I thought," he chuckled, "when me and Alison were little, I'd take her to the local church every Sunday. Afterwards, I'd take her to this local restaurant and she'd always get a steak with mash potatoes and green beans. She could never finish it, Heh,"

Yun turned to Ashley as though just remembering that she was in the room with him. He stared at her for a long moment, before saying, "wow, you are really the hottest woman I've ever seen. If the whole Spectre thing doesn't work out you should try modeling, probably make a killing."

Ashley sighed, but secretly had to suppress a smile, "and the moment is destroyed."

"Sorry, but you are hot,"

"Yeah, thanks I think. Talking to you was…nice," decided Ash, "and for the record, I'm pretty sure at least half the things you say violate the fraternization policy,"

"Well, good things are always worth risking yourself for" countered Yun,

This time Ash couldn't help but smile, "now that was an awful one, did you get that out of a fortune cookie or off the extranet?"

Yun shrugged, "just came to me. If you send me to the brig will you come visit me?"

"I'll think about it," she replied as she exited the room. She nearly jumped when Breznev suddenly walked up to her, apparently rested well enough.

"L.C Williams, I hope you don't mind but I overheard your conversation with Gabriel,"

Ashley scowled, "I'm afraid I do, I don't like people ease dropping on the things I have to say."

"I apologize, but I thought that you should know I've managed to come up with a quick diagnoses of Gabriel,"

"Diagnoses? What do you mean?"

"Ever since the mission started, Sgt. Johnson has asked me to keep my eye on Yun. To read his movements, see if this mission was effecting him. Despite what you might believe, Yun is mentally quite fragile. He has had many problems with his past."

Now Ashley was interested, "and what exactly have you found?"

"His smoking, his drinking, his high amount sexual activit, and his flirtation with you, they are his defense mechanism," explained Breznev, "he is dealing with something and this is how he escapes it."

"He did say that his sister and him and been growing distant lately," offered Ashley,

"Perhaps it is that, perhaps not, but I advise you keep close eye on him,"

"Thanks, I will," with that Ashley found herself thinking more and more on the subject. But she quickly pushed it aside for now and focused on what needed to be done.

"This is Lieutenant Commander Ashley Williams to the SSV Salem, please respond" she spoke into her COM,

"_This is Captain Davos of the Salem_"came the reply, _"what's your status?"_

"Bad, we've got unidentified hostiles on the ground. Cerberus is no longer a problem but these new hostiles have completely wiped the colony. We haven't found any survivors, requesting that reinforcements be sent in now!"

"_Copy that Lieutenant Commander, we'll get them to you. ETA 1 hour"_

"Copy, Williams out,"

Now all they had to do was hold out for another hour


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Bugs Massacre

An hour was usually not a very long amount of time for most people. But when the knowledge that at any moment you could become food for an unknown species of alien, a second can seem like an eternity.

That's why Ashley decided to pass the time by taking inventory of what equipment they had left over. The armory they had discovered in Town Hall's security room had been a boon. Each of them had been running low on thermal clips after having spent so many fighting back the alien horde and some like Octavia were short a weapon.

Ashley moved the moderate contents of the armory out on to a table for survey. Half an hour passed and she had managed to make a list of everything that they had.

Six M-8 Avenger assault rifles, Six M-23 Katana shotguns, Ten Predator Pistols, and two crates of thermal clips. Not bad considering that the colony never experienced all that much danger before.

Satisfied that everything was taken into account, Ashley set down her pad let out a sigh.

She hadn't been a Spectre for very long, she knew that she would have to get used to having to uphold the reputation of a Spectre being the best. She knew the missions she'd get would be the toughest she'd ever faced, but she never expected this.

To be assigned a team of marines, then to lose over half of them in less than ten minutes. It was like Eden Prime all over again.

Except this time, Shepard wouldn't come in to rescue her. She was on her own, she only had herself to rely on in order to pull what remained of the team out of the fire.

Ash didn't know if she could.

"L.C, you there?" came Yun's voice over the COM,

"What is it?" she asked,

"Spark was in medical doing…stuff, and he thinks that you'd like to see what he's found," answered the Corporal.

"Alright, I'm on my way,"

#

Yun leaned against an incredibly white wall in the Medical room smoking a cigarette as he watched his new Geth friend, Spark, dissect one of the strange bone white spider like creatures they'd picked up during their time underground.

"That is the most disgusting thing I've ever seen," Yun commented bluntly,

"Disgust is an emotion felt by sentient organics, Geth do not feel it," replied Spark as he continued his dissection.

"Hm, well then the Geth are luck. They aren't in danger of losing their lunch," said Yun as he took another drag from his tobacco stick.

"Geth do not eat,"

"It's an expression," chuckled Yun,

A few seconds passed.

"Yun Corporal?"

"Hmm?"

"How is the device I provided you?"

"Oh, you mean this?" he asked, pointing a finger to the gift the Geth had bestowed on him. "It works great, can't tell you how much pain this thing has already saved me."

"When I gave it to you, I did not think you would use it to browse the extranet for sexually explicit content,"

"I'm a healthy male," said Yun as though that explained anything.

"Could you please contact Williams Spectre and tell her to come here?" asked Spark, "I believe I have a new understanding of our enemy."

"Really? Awesome, I'll get right on it," Yun pushed a finger to the COM piece in his ear, "L.C, you there?"

"What is it?" her voice replied,

Spark was in medical doing…stuff, and he thinks that you'd like to see what he's found,"

Alright, I'm on my way," the line went dead.

"She's on her way," Yun informed,

"Acknowledged," replied Spark, "thank you for your assistance,"

"Do you want the rest of the squad in here too?"

"That would be ideal, though if they are performing an important task they need not be troubled," said Spark,

Yun returned his finger to the COM piece and called up Johnson, "Sarge?"

"What is it Yun?"

"Spark thinks he's found some stuff everyone would like to see," said Yun, "could you gather up the team and meet us in Medical?"

"The light bulb found something did he? Alright, we'll be there in a moment," the line cut and the room was quiet once more.

Yun let out a puff of smoke, "So…do you think the L.C is hot?"

At that moment the door slid open, cutting off any response that the Geth may have had. In stepped Ash, followed by Johnson and the rest of the squad.

"Alright light bulb," said Johnson, stepping up to Spark's table, "what'd ya got for us?"

"A discovery of information pertaining to our enemy,"

"enemy, you mean the big bug things that attacked us?" asked Ashley,

"Yes," said the Geth. Spark then walked over to a large monitor mounted on the back wall. He reached his hand up to his "neck" and pulled out a long wire. The Geth then attached the wire to the monitor and turned it on.

The screen immediately displayed what everyone recognized as their entrance into the dig site. It began with exiting the elevator and entering the infested tunnels, as the video progressed it eventually showed the conversation Yun had with Spark and the obtaining of the specimen.

The screen then showed Spark looking up at a mixed group of Batarians, Humans, and Turian stuck to the wall.

The screen froze.

"As you can see from this image," began Spark, "each of these organics had their chest broken out."

"Yeah," said Yun, "we saw how that happened, some real freaky shit."

"Indeed," said Spark, "through study, I have managed to find the cause of the chest eruptions."

Walking back over to the table, the Geth gestured to the dissected creature. "this, is the cause"

Ashley furrowed her brows, "I'm afraid I don't understand"

"These creatures are a larval stage of our enemy. These small spider like creatures are born from the eggs, they then find themselves a host to impregnate via hugging the face."

The screen changed to a picture of one of the spiders latching itself to a human's face, its eight bony legs tightly gripped onto the back of the human's head.

"The resulting impregnation leaves behind an embryo within the host. After impregnation is complete, the creature will die and allow the host to awaken. Afterwards when the embryo has matured to the infant stage it will break out of its host via chest eruption,"

"That's what we saw back in the tunnels," realized King,

"Like some sort of messed up roofie," commented Johnson,

"After the infant escapes the host it matures, the time it takes for full maturity is unknown. But the end result is clear," the screen shifted to a picture of the black bug like creatures they'd fought in the tunnels.

"They're like a virus," said Breznev,

"That is an accurate description," said Spark, "it would also seem that the fully mature alien takes on attributes of its host."

"These," said the Geth, pointing at the creature on screen, "are most likely the result of human impregnation as they were the most common variant and humans were this colony's most common species."

The screen switched to a new image, this one Ashley recognized as the alien she had encountered with webbed hands.

"That one was from a Salarian host?" she asked,

"Yes," said Spark, "you can tell from the features it possesses, such as the Salarian horns."

The screen switched images again, this one Yun recognized from chasing after his sister.

"This one encountered by Yun Corporal seems to be of Turian origin, based on the avian like features it has,"

"Alright, so this is all very interesting," said Johnson, "but have you found anything useful? Like how to kill these things?"

"Other than the method we currently use, I have no other ways," said Spark. "But I have observed something worthy of note that could be used for combat."

"What?"

"These creatures appear to operate through a hive like society such as Earth's Ants or Bees," said Spark, "that would suggest that there is an originator giving birth to all the eggs, a Queen."

"So if we kill the Queen, we win?" asked Octavia,

"Unlikely, though it might throw off the hive for some time a new Queen will eventually emerge," said Spark.

"That's fine by me," said Johnson, "I always preferred being thorough anyway."

"What I want to know," Ashley spoke up, "is what those things were doing in the vault in the first place. Spark you said that the Vault was Reaper tech and that there was a warning placed on the front. But why?"

"I have translated more of the text and have found-"

"Lieutenant Commander," Yahachi's voice came over the COM, "I have Captain Davos on the line, I'm patching him through to you now."

"Thank you Corporal," said Ashley, her earlier question forgotten.

"Lieutenant Commander," spoke the Captain's voice a second later, "your reinforcements will be arriving soon. The first drop ship will touch down in thirty seconds. I'll hand you over to Commander Frost now, you can brief him on what you're facing."

"Understood Captain"

"This is Commander Frost," said a new, gruffer voice, "Lieutenant Commander Williams, I understand we have a bit of a bug problem?"

"That's correct Commander, the hostiles are an unknown species of Alien," said Ashley, "they look like something out of horror movie, like someone crossed a human and a bug together and added some nightmare. Be advised, even though they don't use guns they are extremely dangerous."

"Copy, don't you worry Williams, these things won't look so scary after the 3rd Platoon's done with them, Frost out,"

Ashley released her COM piece, oddly enough she did so reluctantly. She should have felt relieved that reinforcements had finally arrived, yet something seemed to nag at her. It felt like she'd just asked thirty men to come to their deaths.

"Camera room, now!"

#

Private Jenkins sat apprehensively in his seat as the drop ship ever occasionally rocked. According to his squad mates he had what was called the, "first time tingles". Something guys fresh of the boat got when getting into their first real taste of combat.

Jenkins had still been in training when the Reapers attacked Earth. He hadn't seen any action but he had watched it from afar.

He hoped he had what it would take for this battle.

"Hey, Rookie" said a voice, Jenkins looked up to see his squad's Sergeant: Samantha Drake, "you look like you're about to spew out your lunch, am I going to have to keep you on the shuttle?"

"No ma'am," he immediately said, standing up. "I'm just trying to get ready."

Sgt. Drake stared up at him with a piercing glare.

Despite being only 5'5 and being built rather lithely, Drake had a seriously intimidating presence. The Brazilian born woman could make even the roughest looking marines break down with just a glare and a growl.

"Alright," she said, "just don't break down into a quivering mess when the bullets start flying."

"Of course ma'am," he nodded. When she finally turned around, Jenkins breathed a sigh of relief and sunk back into his seat. It must've been quite a sigh, seeing a woman like that make a 6'2 Black man sweat.

"Don't worry Rookie, she does it to all of us," assured the man next to Jenkins. One of his squad mates, Private Renzo.

"Everyone?"

"Yup" said the blonde man.

"Yeah," said another voice. Jenkins looked to his other side to see Private Mendoza, "besides, even though she doesn't act like it, she really cares."

"What are you three talking about over there?" asked the Sergeant in question.

"Nothing!" they all replied immediately,

Everybody in the cabin suddenly jerked as the shuttle decelerated and came to a stop.

"This is it!" announced the pilot, "we're at the LZ!"

"Alright girls and other marines, looks sharp," yelled Drake, "anyone dies with no kill count, I'll drag them out of hell and beat the shit out of them!"

The cabin door slid open and the marines piled out.

Jenkins followed his squad through the space port, noting that some squads had already arrived. The mission plan was simple.

Create a convoy with what forces they had and rendezvous with the advance team at the Colony Town Hall. There they would spread out and eliminate all remaining hostiles. The only question was, what did the hostiles look like?

"Everyone gather up!" yelled a loud gruff voice. Jenkins followed the crowd of marines to one of the three Mako tanks that had been assigned to this operation. On top of it he spotted a bald black man with a fair amount of stubble and a Commander's insignia on his shoulder.

"I am Commander Frost, your commanding officer in this operation," he announced from atop the tank, "today's mission is anything but simple marines. We're moving in to assist an advance special forces team with the securing of Reaper technology some egg heads dug up in this colony. But the securing isn't the hard part, its what's guarding that should have you worried. We've made contact with an unidentified xeno life form. That's right, Aliens. You are all to assume hostility, these things have already killed good Alliance soldiers so we're going to return the favor. The convoy is moving out to the Town Hall in thirty seconds, you all have your assignments. Oorah Marines!"

"Oorah!"

The 30 marines assembled into the convoy. The convoy itself consisted of a line composed of three Mako tanks with ten marines surrounding each, a formidable force for anyone to attack.

Jenkins was located with his squad guarding the second tank in the line. But even when he was surrounded by so much firepower, he found himself quite unnerved.

Mars was in its night cycle and everywhere was pitch black. The wind was blowing up a sand storm reducing visibility to a couple meters in front of you which meant that they had to rely on thermal imaging for recon.

Then there was the wind, that awful wind that howled as it weaved through the buildings. That alone was enough to make Jenkins clutch his Avenger rifle to his chest as though a talisman to avoid death.

"Boo!"

Jenkins let out a yelp only to be confronted by a giggling Mendoza.

"Ha, watch out for the boogey man!"

"Knock it off Mendoza," growled Drake,

Suddenly the Mako tanks came to a stop as did the rest of the convoy. From his position, Jenkins could hear Commander Frost dishing out orders for men to go scout out the area.

As a result the convoy was forced to hold up for a few minutes. Jenkins was almost getting used to the howling wind when suddenly gunshots shattered the peace and every marine jumped for their weapons.

"Recon 1-2," the Commander spoke into his COM, "report, what's going on?"

Static was his only response. But that alone was enough for the Commander to realize what had happened to his scouting teams.

He was just about to order the convoy to continue forward with weapons hot when a ear splitting inhuman shriek. Frost immediately went for his pistol.

"Jesus," said one Marine, "what the hell was that? Rodney's mom?"

Silence.

"Rodney? Dude? Where are you?" the marine looked around to where his friend had been only a second ago. A gleam in the dirt caught his eye and he went to investigate. He bent down and picked up the object, only to find that it was Rodney's rifle.

Why was that lying in the sand?

A hiss slipped into his hearing. The marine whipped around and met death.

His screams carried to the rest of the convoy.

"Look up there!" someone yelled,

Everyone directed their attention to a two foot tall building to the right of the first Mako tank. There everyone watched as what could only be described as a massive black bipedal bug dragged one of their marines over onto the roof.

Another scream broke out, this one at the back.

Jenkins whipped around to see another marine being dragged into an alley.

Then a chorus of beastly hisses echoed into the night.

"lights now!" ordered Frost,

Each tank lit up a massive spotlight mounted on their backs to illuminate the dark. The bright circles danced across the buildings as they attempted to locate the enemy. The second tank's spot light passed over an open house, just as it began to leave the controller caught a flicker of movement.

The spotlight jerked back over the house.

There a dozen black ants from hell were revealed. Without hesitation they burst forward, leaping with unnatural speed and ferocity.

The marines were so stunned by overwhelming fear that at first they did not open fire. In that brief window, the aliens closed the gap between them and the humans. Immediately two marines found themselves pinned as the insect like creatures leapt on top of them.

"Open fire!" Frost suddenly yelled. His voice shattered the spell the creatures held over the humans and allowed them to fight back.

Jenkins raised his rifle at an incoming bug and pulled the trigger. His weapon kicked against his shoulder and spat bullets, most of the shots missed bug enough struck home that the bug tumbled into the sand and died with a screech.

Over to his right Mendoza primed a grenade and tossed it into the incoming wave. The aliens scattered and the explosive detonated.

Drake spotted a trio of aliens making a run for her squad. She shouldered her rifle and mercilessly gunned them down.

Renzo, the squad's biotic cast a singularity into a small bunch of the aliens. The miniature black hole dragged three of the black bugs into its grasp allowing for the other marines to gun them down.

As Renzo gave his powers a small moment to rest something splashed against his chest. He looked down to see that he'd been hit by a large glob of burning acid.

Before he could rip the armor off and save himself, another glob struck him in the shoulder, then another hit him square in the face.

He screamed in pain as the acid burned through his armor and eventually found itself on his skin. He died in extreme pain.

Jenkins after seeing Renzo go down, traced the shots to a nearby building.

"Hey!" he yelled to the Mako, then pointed to the building, "over there!"

The spot light swiveled onto the building where it found the source of the globs of acid. More bugs, but these ones with glowing green pouches on the side of their heads which undoubtedly was the acid they spewed.

The Mako's main gun turned to the building and began unleashing a torrent of bullets upon the aliens. The aliens of course fired back but were eventually all gunned down.

"Keep close to the tank!" ordered Drake as she riddled another bug with bullets.

Mendoza heard the order too late. He was left on the outskirts of the defensive line and an alien jumped from the shadows and landed on top of him.

The alien then began viciously ripping through his body with the use of its claws. Mendoza screamed as his blood splattered everywhere, until he finally died.

"Mendoza!" yelled Jenkins, watching in horror as his team mate was ripped apart. Suddenly something slammed against him, Jenkins squeezed his eyes in pain. When he opened them he found another bug on top of him, its mouth parting and revealing a second mouth within.

The alien was interrupted however when someone came over and kicked it off of Jenkins then emptied the rest of their clip into its body. The private looked up to see Sgt. Drake standing over him, "come on Rookie on your feet!"

Jenkins did just that. He looked up and spotted one bug on top of the roof of a building. But this one was slightly different.

Anatomically it looked like all the others, with one exception. It was bigger and something about it made it seem much more menacing.

It let out a commanding screech into the air. A moment later a dozen bugs rushed their position, thankfully gunned down by the combined fire of the tank and the marines.

The big bastard let out another roar.

This time however, the rest of the bugs retreated back into the shadows.

Soon everything was quiet, even the sound of gun fire had disappeared.

"What the hell? Where'd they go?" asked one marine.

Any response was cut off when a small tremor echoed through the ground along with a very audible and rhythmic thud.

"Keep it tight people," whispered Drake,

The thudding became louder and the tremor's became larger. Something very big was coming.

That something soon revealed itself when from out of the darkness came the biggest bug Jenkins had ever seen.

It bounded over on all fours with its large crested head leading its charge as it fearlessly attacked their position. Two marines were unlucky enough to be standing in its way.

They fired their rifles at its shield like crest only for the bullets to harmlessly bounce off with no effect. The charging alien continued forward and slammed into the two marines, sending both flying in opposite directions with a meat crunch.

The marines parted before the beast as it smashed its head into the true target, the Mako tank. The massive alien hit the war machine with all the force of freightliner, caving in the outer shell and nearly tipping the thing over.

The Mako attempted to move and return fire, but the alien reared its head back and slammed it down again.

"Stop it!" ordered Drake,

The marines turned to open fire, but were interrupted when the aliens that had previously retreated suddenly jumped back into the fray. And with the marine's attention on the big bug, they quickly closed in and began to wreak carnage.

As he fought to stay alive, Jenkins spotted another charger bug attack the back tank. Things were falling apart fast. The tanks were being torn apart, the marines were being overwhelmed, and the bugs only seemed to get more numerous.

Frost at the front of the line fought with incredible tenacity. One bug tried to jump on him but he quickly threw himself back and allowed it to miss. He then kicked it in its teeth and put two rounds in the thing's banana shaped head.

He then spotted a group of them heading his way. Unclipping a grenade from his belt, he hit the primer and tossed it into their midst.

The explosive detonated a second later and send pieces of bugs raining across the field.

But even with that small victory Frost could see that they were fighting a losing battle. If only the Mako's were so busy with those damn big bugs.

"Armor!" he yelled, "fire on that big bastard attacking the second tank!"

When the tank pilot didn't respond, Frost turned around to personally get in there and take command. But as he did, he spotted something on top of the tank.

It was one of the aliens, it looked like the regular ones except bigger, meaner. It too was black as knight and had a rigged carapace. But while the other ones appeared to stand at around seven feet, this one was at least nine. Small spikes protruded from its exoskeleton around its joints and its tail was more harpoon shaped in contrast to the regular alien's knife like tail.

Its head bore a line of spines on the top of its phallic shaped head, starting from its forehead and running down the middle all the way to the back. In addition, on either side of its jaw it had what looked almost like miniature tusks.

The most glaring distinction however was its "face".

It bore features that were visibly very akin to a human, one left eye socket and a nasal cavity.

The ugly bug hissed at Frost and tossed up its right claw. Something flew out of its grasp and landed at Frost's feet, he looked down to see that it was the body of the tank driver.

"Son of a bitch!" Frost raised his pistol and fired. The bullets hit the thing square in the chest but only seemed to piss it off. It jumped down from its perch atop the tank and landed in front of Frost.

Its tail whipped out and swept Frost's feet from under him.

"Commander!" some Marines yelled,

They opened fire on the ugly bug, careful not to hit the Commander. But even under such a hail of bullets the thing didn't even stagger, it simply ran at the marines undaunted.

By the time the marines realized they weren't doing any damage, it was already too late. Ugly swung and it's claws sliced through the firs marine's neck. It's second swing went across the next marine's face, his helmet useless in protection.

The third was speared through the chest with by Ugly's tail. The final marine attempted to flee but Ugly grabbed her before she could get very far. Ugly held the marine before its gaze, as if taking pleasure in the woman's fear.

Its mouth slowly parted, revealing its inner mouth. Like a bullet, its inner mouth shot out and burst through the marine's helmet and into her forhead.

The marine's body hit the ground lifelessly.

Ugly screeched in victory and went off to wreak even more havoc among the marines.

However, it had mistakenly left Commander Frost alive.

Frost bit through whatever pain he was feeling and hopped into the Mako tank. Ignoring the badly mangled bodies inside he started up the tank's engine and took control of the main gun.

Using the tank's targeting computer he sighted down the Charger that had by then nearly finished with the second Mako tank, which was now on its side, missing tires, and full of deep dents.

Frost jammed his finger down on the trigger. Dozens of bullets hit the Charger's side and for the first time the marines saw blood come out of its body. But the Charger swung itself towards the source of its pain and did what it did best, charge.

"Shit" cursed Frost, quickly deciding to move the tank. He managed to move just in time, letting the Charger's crest only clip the back of the Mako.

"Alright, you wanna play chicken?! Let's play!"

The Mako swerved around and Frost slammed his foot down on the gas. The Charger similarly turend around and met Frost's challenge.

It seemed at first that the two would indeed collide but at the last moment, Frost spun the tank in a u-turn fashion. The back of the Mako slammed into the Charger's side and knocked it off its feet.

Frost then swung the Mako's gun and fired into the Charger's exposed belly.

The Alien screamed as its blood poured out onto Mars and died.

"Yeah!" cheered Frost, his victory however was short lived. The second Charger slammed into the Mako's side with enough force to knock it over.

Frost cursed as he tumbled inside the tank. When he world stopped spinning he popped the hatch of the Mako and crawled out. He lay on his back in pain and his eyes squeezed shut.

Around him he could hear the sounds of the battle still raging on. Gunfire, screams, it was a symphony of battle as alien and human slaughtered each other.

"Commander Frost!" he heard someone yell,

Frost opened his eyes to find his vision blurred. He slowly managed to stand, albeit rockily. Someone grabbed his shoulder and yelled his name, "Commander Frost, sir! Are you alright?!"

His vision began to clear and he saw that it was a young Private.

"Sir! Are you alright?!"

"I'm fine," replied Frost gruffly, shaking off the marine. He then put a finger to his earpiece and spoke, "This is Frost to all surviving marines, retreat! I repeat, fall back to the space port!"

"Aaaah!"

Frost whipped around just in time to see the marine he'd just talked to fall to the ground, his throat ripped out. The one responsible, Ugly.

Frost went for his pistol and managed to raise it only for Ugly to smack it out of his hand, then grab Frost by the wrist and yank him forward. Out came Ugly's tail, Frost chest burst with blood as its sharp end pierced into his body and out his back.

But the Commander clung to life just long enough to see Ugly bring his face down to his own, as though it wanted its hideous mug to be the last thing Frost ever saw.

With another tug, Ugly sunk even more of its tail into Frost. The human hissed as pain wrack his body before it suddenly disappeared and he felt nothing.

The surviving marines broke into a full blown run as they attempted to flee from the alien attackers. But turning their backs to the bugs was one of the worse mistakes they made.

As they fled the xenos jumped on their backs, unwilling to allow their prey get away. With most of them dead, the marines were unorganized and unable to fight back effectively. They gave into panic and could only run as fast as they could.

Drake, a woman who had kept her cool even during the Reaper wars, was one of those panicking. Never before had she felt such fear in the face of the enemy.

That fear cost her dearly when something suddenly landed on her back and pinned her to the ground. Drake didn't need to look up to know it was one of the bugs. She squeezed her eyes shut and waited for death.

"Hey!"

The weight was suddenly lifted from her back, when she opened her eyes she found the Jenkins stepping on the bug's neck. He placed his rifle's barrel to the thing's head and but in a small burst.

The blood splattered and landed on Jenkin's leg, immediately he began screaming as the acidity of the blood began to burn through his armor and into his leg.

"Rookie!" Drake quickly composed herself and caught her Private.

"Sarge, go, I'm dead weight now," Jenkins ordered through the pain.

"You don't order me around kid," growled Drake, "I'm getting you back to the ship if I have to beat you blue to get you there."

With renewed vigor she began dragging the much larger man along with her towards the space port. It wasn't easy, the Rookie must have weighed fifty more pounds than her.

Worse, Drake had her own injures that were already hampering her. If she didn't speed things up, the bugs were going to over take them. Already she could hear the sounds of gunfire and screams catching up.

This wasn't going to work, she needed to shift Jenkins into a better position for her to move more efficiently.

"Rookie, I'm gonna drag you. I move you shoot!" without bothering to wait for his response she dropped him onto the ground in a sitting position and grabbed him by the collar. Drake then proceeded to drag the Rookie across the ground.

Jenkins in the meantime had a perfect view of the battle that was getting precariously closer to their position. The bugs were slaughtering anyone in the back and pretty soon that was going to be them.

He had to buy them time. Shouldering his rifle he fired into the incoming aliens, keeping his shots in short bursts in order to conserve ammo.

One bug managed to blow through the back lines and run right for them. Jenkins immediately sighted it down and put a sustained burst right into its banana head.

A marine in the back attempted to turn tail and make a sprint for the space port, but was suddenly grabbed by the shoulder and had his cranium cut open.

Another bravely tried to hold off the demons but was soon buried under a sea of black limbs.

Jenkins couldn't help but squirm as he watched the humans get picked off one by one. Some weren't even killed, they were simply dragged off into the dark so that the aliens could do god knows what to them.

But fortune favored the two marines. Drake soon dragged Jenkins hide into the space port and tossed him into the nearest drop ship.

The same ship was soon crammed to burst with marines.

"Pilot, take off!" ordered Drake,

"Yes ma'am!"

As the ship began to take off, Drake checked on Jenkins who she'd put down on a chair so as not to put pressure on his injured leg.

The Sergeant then looked out the window to see the last drop ship picking up the last of the marines. But to her horror, the bugs finally caught up with the humans and began jumping on the ship. The humans still on the ground tried to fight back, but were soon overwhelmed.

Worse, one of the remaining Chargers appeared and rammed the shuttle, slamming it back onto the ground and killing the pilot.

Soon their own ship entered space and was safely on its way back to the SSV Salem, but Drake could still hear the screams.

#

Ashley and the surviving members of her team stood silently in front of the monitors connected to ever camera around the colony. They had watched with bated breath as their reinforcements had fought against the alien horde.

At first she thought that perhaps they might catch a break and the convoy would be able to break through to them. But those hopes dropped as she saw the marines one by one get picked off until they were forced to retreat.

That was it then.

They had no reinforcements.

No possibility of evacuation.

No chance of survival.

"We're not going to make it are we?" asked Octavia,

No one saw fit to tell her no.

**A/N**

**Sorry for not updating sooner, school has been hell. Also I was playing the new Aliens game in hopes that it would give me some inspiration to work on this. It gave me some, Ugly is a result of playing the game.**

**Like and Favorite!**


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

FUBAR

Defeated and their numbers reduced to just a mere dozen, the marines of the SSV Salem retreated back to their ship as quickly as possible. It was pitiful, what had needed over fifteen Kodiak drop ships to deploy could be brought back with only one.

Inside of the Kodiak, everyone was dead silent. All were either in shock or still trying to accept what had just happened. It didn't help that the things that had wiped out their platoon had looked like something out of a nightmare.

When the drop ship docked in the Salem's docking bay the ship's medical staff were waiting. Marines piled out, most of them stumbling or limping, some even had to be carried out in stretchers.

Sgt. Drake helped the wounded Pvt. Jenkins out as the last two off the ship. A nurse came over and helped the Sergeant carry the large man out.

"Don't worry Rookie, we're gonna get you help, get your leg patched up, and you'll be good as new" promised Drake,

The Rookie let out a pained groan, "can I get some morphine first?"

"Ah quite whining you big baby," scolded the Sergeant,

In a few minutes the docking bay was empty save for one medic who was about to leave himself. Suddenly a loud shuffling caught the medic's attention, fearing that they might have forgotten someone he moved towards the shuttle.

"Hey, is someone still in there?" he asked,

A few moments later he heard a pained groan. Quickly he moved to push the door open. When it was open just enough for the medic to fit through, a pair of hands shot out and grabbed the medic by the shirt and yanked him inside.

The medic struggled, but a knife slipped into his throat and his struggling ceased.

Captain Vilmos quickly stashed the body in the cockpit, hopefully no one would notice the medic's disappearance until they had finished their mission.

Giving another pat on the container strapped to his back, Vilmos checked with his two remaining men. The three of them had managed to sneak into the star port while the Alliance had been fighting the creatures. When they had got there they killed the pilots and stowed their bodies in a corner.

The Alliance retreat happened just as they were getting comfortable but it had been a minor inconvenience.

Now however, they were stuck on the Alliance frigate with no way to get off. The docking bay doors had sealed behind them so they couldn't just fly the shuttle off. Vilmos took comfort however, in the fact that most of the Alliance marines had been killed off. That meant that only security personal and the remaining few marines would be on board to protect the ship.

"Alright, quick weapons and ammo check," whispered Vilmos. He pulled out his Talon submachine gun and gave it a quick look over. His two companions, Pvt. Jones and Pvt. Tang pulled out their Harriers loaded in fresh thermal clips.

"You're packages still secure?" he asked, both nodded. Since most of their squad had been killed, the two of them had been delegated duty of carrying the other two eggs. Not exactly a very comfortable job considering the mass of the case but it had to be done.

"Alright, we're stuck on this ship but we won't be for long. We're going to make our way to the CIC deck, from there we'll make contact with our frigate and tell them the mission is complete. Then we'll unlock the hanger doors and use one of the shuttles to get out. Ready?"

The two nodded, Vilmos eased the shuttle door open and made a quick sweep of the bay. When he was sure that no one was around, he motioned for the two troopers to follow him.

The quickly exited the hanger and began to make their way through the pristine white halls of the Alliance Frigate.

#

After witnessing their rescue get wiped out, the survivors dispersed through the building to cope with reality in their own different ways.

Ashley opted to sit in the armory with her hands covering her face. She'd been in plenty of FUBAR missions before but this one took the cake. It wasn't just the fact that these aliens were of a new species, and thus were a mystery.

But Ashley should have been able to handle the mission better. She should have asked for reinforcements sooner, she should have realized something was wrong the moment they touched down.

The deaths of all these marines, the men and women who would never get to go back home, were on her head. Some Spectre she turned out to be.

Humanity's second Spectre, a total failure, the second Williams to screw up their military career, proof that the Williams family are losers. That's what she'd be remembered as.

How had she ever believed that she could rise to be anything? She couldn't even guarantee the safety of her own team.

But she had to keep it together, or at least pretend to. Even if she was breaking down inside she had to keep up the appearance that she was still holding it together.

"Ma'am?"

Ashley jumped, she hadn't even heard the door open, "yes Sergeant?"

"I gathered the team together in the security room like you asked," explained Johnson, "their ready whenever you are."

"Right," Ash breathed, "go wait with them Sergeant. I'll be along shortly."

Johnson nodded and closed the door behind him. When he was gone, Ashley took another deep breath and let it out. She composed herself and pushed herself up onto her feet.

Mustering her willpower she exited the armory and walked into the security room. There what was left of the team was gathered around a rectangular table, with the exception of Spark who was still monitoring the cameras.

Most of them looked distressed with the exception of Yahachi, who somehow managed to maintain his never changing expression. The minute she stepped in, all eyes were on her.

Keeping her façade together Ashley walked to the head of the table and put her two hands down on its surface.

"Alright people, I'm not going to lie," she started, "this mission is fucked. Our team is down to half strength, our reinforcements are gone, and we never managed to secure our objective. To make a long story short our options are incredibly limited."

"We went into this mission blind and that problem still hasn't been fixed. That is why I've decided that we're aborting the mission."

Suddenly everyone was very interested in this meeting.

"Aborting?" asked Octavia, "you mean we're leaving?"

"Yes," nodded Ash.

"That's fine with me," chorused King,

"What are you talking about we can't just leave," protested Octavia,

"Sybilla" said King, who knew what was coming, "just-"

"No! I refuse to take this order! Those bastards killed my friends, good marines died today! We can't just run with our tales tucked between our legs!"

"Quiet down Octavia," barked Johnson, "the LC says we're aborting, so we're aborting."

"No, Sarge you can't agree with this! I know for a fact that you don't want to run any more than I do."

"No I do not," admitted Johnson, "but that doesn't mean I disobey orders or do fool hardy things like what I know you're thinking!"

Octavia sneered, "I guess I should have expected this, I knew this would happen with her in charge."

That caught Ashley's attention, "excuse me."

In his seat, Yun's robotic fingers suddenly crushed the lit cigarette he'd been smoking.

"Yeah, that's right. I know all about you Williams," Octavia replied challengingly. "You're grandfather, General Williams, was the only human commander to surrender to an alien force."

Ashley's hands balled into fists and her body tensed up.

"Now here you are, running away like a scared little girl."

She clenched her teeth.

"I guess giving up runs in the family"

Ashley exploded into motion. With her training and experience, Octavia never stood a chance. The Spectre's armored fist caught he woman right in the gut. Ashley had purposefully chosen that spot, knowing that the woman's armor would save her from lasting damage but that the blow would still cause a hell of a lot of pain. And right now that's all that mattered to Ash, making her feel pain.

Octavia doubled over but quickly recovered. When she did, she lunged at Ashley with the skill of a wild animal. Ashley waited for her to get in close, then quickly shifted to the side and stuck out her foot.

Octavia tripped and fell to the floor.

But again the woman quickly pushed herself back up. As she did, she tossed a thermal clip at Ash, causing the Spectre to drop her guard in order to dodge it. Octavia closed the distance between them in that time and swung a right hook at Ashley.

But a blue aura surrounded the Spectre and she was suddenly jerked back into a pair of mechanical arms. Yun then struck out with his right arm and sent a wave of biotic energy, shoving Octavia into a wall. King and Breznev were there immediately, pinning the woman down.

"Let me up! Let me up!" screeched Octavia as she struggled.

"Sybilla girl! Calm down!" begged King as he held her back.

Ashley lunged forward, hoping to continue teaching the bitch a lesson. But Yun's grip kept her in place.

"Take her out of here!" ordered Johnson, the two men then dragged a still struggling Octavia out of the room. When everything was once again quiet, Johnson turned to Ashley, "I'm sorry about that ma'am, I'll have her locked up immediately."

"That…won't be necessary Sergeant," said Ashley, "I'll write it off, we're all a little on edge right now."

"Thank you ma'am," nodded Johnson, he then saluted and left the room.

Ashley sighed, she needed a drink.

"Cigarette?" asked Yun, holding out a pack to her. She shook her head to decline and sat on the table.

"What about you?" asked Ashley, "do you think we should run?"

"Quite frankly, yes," said Yun, "never could understand why some people enjoyed fighting so much. But in this situation especially, I think it's a good idea. Those aliens might fight with claws and teeth but they've kicked our asses in every engagement so far. Obviously we're doing something wrong, retreat will give us some time to figure out what."

Ashley nodded.

"She said your grandfather was General Williams right?" asked Yun, "the General Williams?"

Ashley nodded, "the General Williams."

Yun nodded back, "hmm, well then, I'll leave you alone for now."

"yeah…oh and thanks," said Ashley

Yun paused by the door, "for what?"

"Keeping me back," explained Ash, "if you hadn't I might've seriously hurt Octavia."

Yun smirked, "I believe it. Come on Yahachi, let's leave the LC alone."

With that said the two men left Williams alone with the synthetic manning the security cameras. With a sigh she pinched the bridge of her nose and rubbed her temples. She felt like she needed a drink or maybe a nap, either one sounded nice right about now.

But she didn't have the luxury of taking a break, right now she needed to get what was left of her team off this planet alive.

"Unit cohesion seems to be degrading," commented Spark, not taking its eyes off of the terminal.

Ashley turned to the synthetic, "excuse me?"

"Unit cohesion seems to be degrading," repeated Spark, "this confuses me."

"Why?" Ashley asked incredulously,

"The Geth never fight, we never have a conflict of interests. Throughout our history we have always been cooperative with one another and always had the same interests as one another. We have often observed that organics often have infighting, I wish to know why?"

Ashley let out a breath, "I don't know, it just how we always are."

"Surely there is a reason," Spark almost begged.

"I don't know," Ashley said again, "look, Spark, I'm not in any mood to discuss philosophy at the moment."

"I am causing you severe stress. I apologize, this was not might intention. Please accept my apologies."

"Yeah sure, just patch me through to the Salem so we can get a ride out of here," said Ashley. Spark nodded its head and typed in a series of commands to the terminal. An antenna also grew out of its back and before long it had established a line to the Salem.

"Line established," it announced, "patching you through now."

Ashley put her finger to the COM unit in her ear and spoke, "This is Lieutenant Command Ashley Williams to the SSV Salem. Captain, do you read me?"

"_This is Captain Davos of the Salem, I read you,"_ confirmed a voice.

Ashley breathed a sigh of relief, "Captain, I'm requesting an immediate evac for my team. We are aborting mission. I repeat, we are aborting."

"_I read you Williams, can't say I blame you, this whole missions gone to shit. I'll send you a shuttle just as soon as I can-,"_ the Captain's voice was suddenly cut off a sudden storm of noise.

"Captain? What's going on?"

#

"_Captain? What's going on?"_

Davos quickly whipped around, his hand going for the sidearm he kept holstered on his hip. He turned just in time to see the two security officers assigned to the CIC get gunned down by men wearing white and black armor.

Two crew members went for their pistols as well. But they too were killed with deadly precision. Davos unholstered his weapon and fired two quick shots at the Cerberus soldiers.

He missed both shots but they were enough for the hostiles to hesitate coming any closer.

Davos leaped down from the command ramp to try and find better cover but as he did one of the Cerberus operatives popped out and fired a quick burst from his rifle.

The shots struck home in Davos's knee, the Captain let out a cry of pain and crashed into the floor. As he fell, his hand loosened its grip on his pistol and the weapon slid across the deck.

The old Captain attempted to stand himself up and limp over to retrieve his pistol but something hard and heavy landed on his backside and pushed him back down.

Davos felt the barrel of a gun press against his head.

He closed his eyes and waited.

A moment later his brains were splattered all over the deck.

One of the female CIC members screamed.

"Alright nobody move!" ordered Vilmos, "We're reasonable people despite what the Alliance may say. If everyone just cooperates then no one needs to die."

"_Captain!"_ Vilmos heard, turning his attention to the galaxy map in the center of the CIC, _"are you there? I repeat, what's going on?"_

Vilmos walked up to the map and spoke to it, "apologies Miss, but Captain Davos is currently indisposed at the moment."

"_Who is this?"_

"The new commanding officer of the SSV Salem," answered Vilmos, "you must be the Alliance team that's been causing us so much trouble planet side. I regret to inform you that no rescue will be possible at this time."

"_Cerberus!"_ the voice on the other side realized,

"But don't worry, we'll take good care of the ship," assured Vilmos, with that said he cut the line. Turning back to the Alliance members on the ship he announced, "alright, as of now you have all been temporarily drafted into Cerberus, congratulations."

Making his way to the cockpit, he found the pilot shaking in his boots. The man look so frightened he'd probably piss his pants the moment Vilmos spoke.

"You gonna give us any trouble flight lieutenant?" asked the Cerberus Captain,

The man shook his head, no.

"Good," said Vilmos, "bring us alongside our frigate and extend an umbilical."

The pilot seemed hesitant at first, but then Vilmos reminded him that he was the one with the gun and the pilot complied.

After a few minutes, the Salem was parallel with the Cerberus ship and an umbilical tube was extended from the Salem's door to their ship's. Because Cerberus frigates were about twice the size of Alliance frigates, the fit was a bit awkward but worked well enough for use.

"You two," commanded Vilmos to his two men, "lock the CIC down and keep the hostages in line. If anyone gives you any trouble, don't be afraid to spill blood. I'll return shortly."

#

"Damn it!" cursed Ashley, slamming her fist onto the table. It seemed fate was against her today, not only had their mission gone to shit but now their only means off this planet had been taken over by Cerberus.

This mission had officially gone FUBAR in every sense of the word.

Ashley slid into a chair and hung her head low. They needed a new plan, find some other way off planet or maybe hold down the fort until rescue arrived.

Either way, she now had to inform her squad of the bad news.

"Spark, call Sgt. Johnson and Cpl. Yun and tell them to come in here," she commanded the synthetic,

"Acknowledged, I will call them now," said the Geth.

Before long both the Sergeant and Yun entered the security room, Johnson looked as solid as ever and Yun was of course smoking.

"Ma'am," greeted Johnson,

"Sergeant,"

"I could've sworn I was just in here, did you get lonely?" asked Yun,

"Shut up and sit down," replied Ashley. Yun quickly obeyed and sat down, then took a drag from his cigarette.

"There was something you needed from us ma'am?" asked Johnson,

"Yes," said Ashley carefully, "I'm afraid I've got some bad news."

"Not surprising," quipped Yun,

Ashley threw him a glare then returned to the task at hand.

"The Salem," she began, "has been boarded by Cerberus, they've take over the bridge and are holding the crew hostage."

"What? How?" asked Johnson,

"I don't know how," admitted Ashley, "but what I do know is that as of now we can't expect any support from the Salem, we're on our own."

"Damn it," cursed Johnson, "terrorist sons of bitches."

Yun quietly sighed and took another puff of smoke, "so what's the plan?"

"I was actually hoping to get input on that from you two," explained Ashley, "the way I see it there's two options we have, either find another way off of this planet or hold this building until the Alliance sends help."

Yun held his cigarette between his lips for a good half a minute before taking it between his fingers and saying, "getting off the planet would be ideal, better chances of survival and we could come back quicker with reinforcements. But…"

"But we don't have a way off the planet," finished Johnson, "at least not one that we know about currently. Last I checked the only ships docked in the space port were only capable of breaking atmosphere but wouldn't survive a trip through a mass relay."

Ashley considered their words carefully than nodded, "agreed, besides even if we were to get off planet we wouldn't have the supplies to survive a trip back to Alliance space."

"So our best bet is to hold down the fort," concluded Yun,

Johnson wearily rubbed his chin, "I've been in plenty of hold outs before ma'am, but nothing quite like what we're up against."

"I understand your concern Sergeant, but at the moment it's all we have," said Ashley, "but if we're going to turn this building into a safe house we're going to need more fire power."

"What did you have in mind ma'am?"

"When our reinforcements retreated they probably left a lot of equipment. The spaceport isn't far from here, probably just a 15 minute jog," said Ashley, "we're going to need a small team to go out and retrieve supplies. Ammo, weapons, whatever we can use to fight."

Johnson nodded, "a good idea, whose on the team?"

"Myself along with Cpl. Yun, PFC. King, and Pvt. Breznev," listed Ashley, "we'll scrounge for supplies and be back hopefully within the hour."

Johnson nodded again, "acknowledged, I'll go tell them the news now."

Ashley dismissed the both of them, Johnson left the room but Yun opted to remain.

"Avoiding Octavia?" he asked,

"Of course I am, it wouldn't be smart to have her guarding my six after what just happened," Ashley pointed out, "how's she doing by the way?"

"Minor bruising, her pride is hurt more than anything," said Yun, "she wouldn't settle down so Breznev gave her a weak sedative, that'll probably keep her calm for a couple hours."

Ashley nodded then asked, "how're you holding up?"

"Me? I'm fine," Yun replied laxly, "I've still got my cigarettes, I've still got blood in my veins, and I've still got my lighter. The only thing I'm missing is a mug of beer in my free hand and a woman of questionable morals in my lap."

"You're an absolute pig," Ash stated bluntly,

"Yeah, I am," said Yun as though it were a matter of fact. He took another drag from his cigarette and noticed that it was at the end of its use. Without hesitation he took it from his mouth and jammed it's still burning end into the palm of his hand.

Ashley noticed his pressed it in with quite a bit of intensity.

When the flame was finally extinguished he tossed the bud carelessly onto the floor and stomped on it. Strangely he let out a sigh that sounded as though its cause was anxiety.

"Why do you do that?" asked Ash, curious.

"Hmm?"

"I saw you do that before, putting out your cigarettes by jamming them into your hand," she explained.'

Yun shrugged, "just a habit I developed."

"I've also seen you hold your palm over your lighter," she countered, "is that a habit too?"

Yun's eyes widened for a fraction of a moment, obviously he had not been aware that she had seen him do that. He then let out a long breath and nervously rubbed the back of his neck.

"Noticed that did you?" he chuckled, "it's…nothing."

"Sure doesn't seem like nothing."

Yun smiled, but he might as well have frowned with the amount of enthusiasm he put into it. He raised his right hand up to his downcast eyes and made a fist.

"I know some marines with prosthetics, a lot of them have phantom pains. Is that what's bugging you?"

This time Yun smiled genuinely and shook his head.

"The body heals, but the mind," he placed a finger on his temple, "is not always as resilient."

Ashley took a seat next to him, "what do you mean?"

"When they gave me these, they had to cut off the old ones. But that wasn't the kicker, no, the real kicker was when they killed the nerves," explained Yun, "prosthetics are connected through muscle and nothing else. I could have a knife through my arm and I wouldn't feel a god damn thing."

"I can see how that could be a bad thing. You wouldn't be able to feel any of the good things in life,"

Yun frowned, "I don't really miss any of those."

Ashley furrowed her eyebrows, "you don't?"

"No?" he confirmed, "I mean I still have nerves on the rest of my body so I can still feel shit. What I miss, is feeling pain."

"Pain?"

"Yeah," said Yun, "I still remember what the last thing I felt with my real arms was: fire, all over my arms and this horrible pain that just wouldn't go away. I don't remember feeling anything else after that. But sometimes when I'm sleeping or even when I'm just sitting in some chair, I'll feel it again."

"But, whenever I do it myself" Yun opened his lighter, lit a flame, and pressed his thumb down onto it, "I can't feel a god damn thing. I don't know why, but for some reason I want to feel that fire again. But I want it to come from something I did, not this stupid mental scar I've got on my brain."

Ashley was struck silent, it seemed that Breznev was right. Yun's less than healthy habits were a means of escape, a defense mechanism. She couldn't imagine what it must be like to not be able to control what happened to your own limbs.

She opened her mouth to speak but was suddenly cut off when the door to the room slid open.

"Ma'am," greeted King as he stepped in, "the Sarge said you wanted to…to...am I interrupting something?"

"Yeah," answered Yun, "you just interrupted the LC's confession of true love for me."

Ashley let out an exasperated sigh and stood up, "come on, we've got work to do."

#

It wasn't long before the team of four was out in the streets of the colony again. Dust buffeted them constantly with sand and dust, it was one of the times that Ashley was glad she was wearing a helmet.

The trip to the battlefield didn't take long and what they found there wasn't pretty.

Blood was everywhere, soaking into the sand and thickening it. Bodies were strewn around the field, most of them missing a sizable chunk of flesh. Ashley also made out what appeared to be long snaking trails on the ground, it took a moment before she realized that it was made from someone being dragged away.

Up ahead were the burning remains of a Mako tank that had been turned onto its back.

"Jesus," muttered King, "poor bastards never had a chance."

Another few minutes of walking and they arrived back at the Space port. There they saw more evidence of battle, bodies were practically everywhere here which meant that the bugs probably hadn't gotten to them yet.

In the back of the port Ashley spotted the wreckage of one of the shuttles that hadn't been able to take off.

"Alright, let's spread out and take a look around. Scavenge anything that might be of use to use," ordered Ashley, "remember to stay within shouting distance of one another, stay frost, keep your guard up, and report and unusual noises. Move out."

The squad did so and went about searching through the supplies that the Alliance had left in its hasty retreat.

Ashley started with some crates that had been shipped down by their reinforcements. She pried them open and found them filled with thermal clips. Nodding approvingly and began filling the bags they had brought with them.

Yun and King were nearby attempting to gain entry to the overturned Kodiak shuttle. King attempted to pry the door open but even with his great strength it refused to yield. Yun promptly motioned for him to step back.

Winding back his mechanical hand he launched a hard punch into the Kodiak's door. The strength of the strike was enough to cave in the door and allow Yun a hand hold which he used to rip the shuttle door right of its hinges.

"Pfft, show off," muttered King as he entered the Kodiak.

Yun just shrugged and flexed his fingers.

"Awww yeah!" cheered King, the man came out and tossed a weapon to Yun.

"Nice," smiled the Corporal,

"Firestorms baby, perfect for clearing out your local bug infestations."

"How many?"

"Just three plus six reloads," replied King, "hey Breznev, find anything?"

"Lots of medi-gel," replied the Russian, "this will help."

"Great, now all we need is to find some booze and-"

Yun's sentence was suddenly cut off when one of the doors nearby buckled. Every human went for their weapon, shouldered it, and sighted down the door.

The holographic handle hadn't been activated which indicated that there was no power. Whoever or whatever was opening that door was doing it manually.

"Squad, take up defensive positions," ordered Ashley with a whisper.

The squad obeyed, arranging themselves so that whatever came out would be caught in a crossfire.

"Don't fire until you have a clear target," commanded Ash.

The door buckled again and this time it seemed whatever was opening it was trying harder. The door began to screech as it was slowly starting to slide open.

The marines tightened their grips on their weapons.

The door screeched open halfway and stopped.

Weapons pointed into the blackness, awaiting whatever nightmares came out of it.

Except no nightmares came out, something else did.

A Turian, a female one to be exact.

At first Ashley didn't believe her eyes, she blinked twice before realizing that her eyes were not deceiving her.

"Everybody hold your fire," she ordered, lowering her Revenant.

"I thought I heard something," said the Turian as she walked out to greet the humans, shotgun lowered, "more survivors from that Alliance attack I assume?"

"More? You mean there are more of us?" asked King,

The Turian nodded, "thank the spirits for that."

"I'll say,"

Ashley had to agree, finding out that there were more survivors was the first piece of good news they'd managed to get all day.

"I'm Lyreel," introduced the Turian, she then gestured to the door behind her, "the Krogan inside is Klonc."

A Krogan with a green crest popped his head and greeted, "sup"

"Are there more of you?" asked Ashley,

"Yeah, about a dozen more colonists plus about six marines we managed to save after the battle," said Lyreel, "come on, I'll show you."

Ashley nodded and motioned for the squad to follow the Turian, before walking through the door Ashley radioed Johnson.

"Home base, we've found survivors, repeat we've found survivors. We're going to gather them up and march them back," she said over the COM, "please acknowledge."

"Acknowledged, that's damn good news to hear ma'am."

"We'll see you soon home base, Williams out."

Ashley followed her squad through the door, the Krogan closing the door after them. The humans and Turian flicked on their flashlights.

"This way," motioned Lyreel, leading them through the dark.

"How have you survived?" asked Ashley as she took point with the Turian.

"By hiding mostly," said Lyreel, "as sad as it is to say, it was easier when the majority of us died. With a smaller group we were able to keep moving so that those things could never find us. When your Alliance moved in, we'd holed up in the space port's employee lounge."

"I'm sorry we can't evac you right away," said Ashley,

"Don't be, I've gotten used to failed escape attempts," assured Lyreel as she continued forward, "are there more of you?"

"Yeah, we've holed up at city hall. We planned on holding it down until the Alliance sent a rescue," explained Ashley, "we came to the Space port in hopes of getting supplies."

"You were foolish to come at night, that's when those things are most active," scolded the Turian.

"The bugs don't like sunshine or something?" asked Yun,

"Darkness is their ally," explained Lyreel, "they can see in it and you're afraid of it."

"Well we weren't going to last long if we didn't have enough ammo," said Breznev,

"I guess that's true enough," conceded Lyreel, "I've been wanting to move my people to City Hall for a while but we don't have the training or numbers to hold it down. You though…"

Eventually Lyreel led them to a door to which the power was still flowing. The holographic lock was red, the Turian knocked twice on the door and the lock changed to a green and opened. Inside two colonists, one a Salarian and the other a female human, were holding weapons.

When they saw that it wasn't the bugs, they lowered their weapons and allowed them inside before relocking the door.

Inside was a mix of other species, ranging from humans and Turians, to Krogan and Asari. Ashley also managed to spot some of the Alliance marines that had survived the attack.

One of them noticed Ashley and jumped to attention, "officer on deck!"

The rest of the marines stood at attention as well.

"At ease men," said Ashley, her HUD indicated that the first marine was Pvt. Yang. "Is this everyone Pvt. Yang?"

"Yes ma'am," said the Private, "and trust me we got lucky. If these survivors hadn't pulled us out of the fire when they did we wouldn't have made it."

Ashley nodded.

"We need to get these people out of here," said Yun,

"Agreed," said Ashley, she turned to the Turian who had been tending to a wounded colonist, "get you're people ready to move. We're going to get you to City Hall."

"Glad to hear it," said Lyreel, "with all of you we might actually be able to hold that place down. Give me ten minutes and I'll have my people ready."

#

True to her word, ten minutes later the group of survivors was on the road again. Between the colonists and the surviving marines, Ashley now had 20 new bodies under her command.

That was why they had to move quickly. Having such a large group compromised any possibility of stealth, getting to their destination quickly was the safest way to go.

Thankfully they'd already managed to get three quarters of the way back to city hall and they still hadn't lost a single soul.

Of course that only put Ashley more on edge.

"Watch those roof tops," she said over the COM, "they could be hiding anywhere."

"Not a comforting prospect," commented Yun.

They continued moving forward but the knot in her gut kept getting tighter as they did. Yun voiced her concerns when he said, "does anyone else feel eyes on the back of their head?"

Her worries got so bad that when she stepped on a manhole for the colony sewage her heart skipped a beat at the noise.

"Hey, you okay?" asked Yun,

"Yeah, I'm fine," she assured as she moved on.

"Don't break down on me LC, cause if you do then so will I," said Yun, almost pleadingly.

"You're afraid?" she asked,

"Terrified," answered the Corporal,

"You don't look like it." Yun smiled and was about to respond when a scream suddenly cut through the sky.

Both humans whipped around to see one of the colonists, the human female, get pulled down the manhole Ashley had just stepped over. It happened so fast that no one reacted until the woman was gone.

"Holy shit!" cursed King,

That's when a roar caught their attention. Ashley turned her eyes up to the roof of a three story building. There her gaze caught sight of the biggest, ugliest bug she'd ever seen.

"Spirits be damned, its Ugly," cursed Lyreel,

"Ugly?" asked Yun,

"Some kind of Alpha," explained the Turian, "whenever he shows up, so do other bugs."

"Well then they'll just have to do without him," said Brezneve, without another word the Russian raised his rifle and fired a quick burst. The shots were perfectly aimed and they struck home, right on the bug's elongated skull.

One problem, the bullets barely left a dent in the thing's exoskeleton. They simply richoted off the bug, leaving it more pissed than it was a few seconds ago.

"What the hell?"

"It's bullet proof!" scolded Lyreel, "we've got to run, I've emptied a whole clip into that thing and it hasn't been any worse off."

Ugly reared its head and roared again, the humans and aliens could feel it echo through their bodies. Not a moment later, black insectoid creatures began jumping out of the shadows to kill.

"Open fire!" Ashley yelled as her Revenant thundered to life.

Her finger jammed down on the trigger, hosing down a trio of bugs running towards them.

"Look out!"

A shimmering barrier suddenly appeared around her just in time to catch a blob of acid aimed at her head. The barrier died and two shots rang out, a second later the acid hacking bug dropped to the ground.

Ashley gave a nod of thanks to Yun before returning to the fight.

Yun smiled to himself before throwing out a biotic shockwave into a line of xenos, knocking them around like bowling pins.

"Keep moving!" she ordered, "we stay here and they'll just keep picking us off."

"You heard her! Move!" shouted Lyreel,

The convoy of survivors began to run double time towards their destination, all the time fighting off their attackers.

But the bugs were relentless, they had no fear of death. They're only thought was to kill for the hive.

King spotted a group of them running parallel to the group like a pack of wolves chasing down their kill. He shouldered his grenade launcher and fired off a single shell, the explosive landed dead center and tore the majority to pieces.

Two got away and leapt towards the survivors.

An Asari colonist summoned her biotics and tossed one of the bugs away. The second lunged at Klonc the Krogan but was promptly bulled out of the way, it's broken body thrown to the red dust of Mars.

"Keep moving!"

An acid spitting alien spat out a glob of acid and managed to catch one of the marines in the face. The man screamed as the substance burned through his helmet and eventually made its way to his flesh.

Those who passed him knew he was already beyond saving and tried to drown out his screams.

Breznev, who was at the back of the line, mercifully shot the man before moving on.

"We're almost there," announced Ashley, "I can see the building!"

That's when a familiar roar broke out, the Spectre spared a glance at the roof of a nearby building to see the bug dubbed Ugly calling to its soldiers.

There was a black blur of movement as two forms, nearly as large as Ugly, leapt from the roof and landed on the ground below with an earth shaking thud.

Lyreel paused in her strides to stare in horror.

"Brutes!"

Ashley stopped in her own tracks to see what had shaken the Turian.

It was a bug, but compared to the other bugs almost skeletal disposition this one was practically bursting with muscle.

Its chest was as wide as two full grown men, its arms had biceps as large as her head and its head was rigged with dark armored plates. It had not tail but made up for it by standing up right and erect like a regular humanoid.

The Spectre realized that she was looking at a Krogan birthed bug. Brute was a fitting nickname to give such a monster.

The two Brutes stared at the scurrying prey, together they let loose ear shattering roars and charged forward. Their muscle bound legs propelled them faster than any human could run, before long they were upon the group.

A Salarian tried to turn and fight, managing to get off a few shots before one Brute backhanded him mid stride and the other stomped his head into the dirt.

"Scatter!" yelled Lyreel

Yun and Ashley did an about face and opened fire on both monsters. But even her Revenant combined with Yun's Piranha didn't even slow their advance. The beasts just took the punishment like a sponge and kept going.

As the Brutes descended upon them Ashley wisely jumped out of the way, Yun however stood his ground and loaded another clip into his shotgun.

He continue firing even as the Brutes got right up in front of him. One of the Brutes lashed out with its large clawed hand. Yun ducked under the blow but was caught by a the second one which rammed its shoulder into him.

The blow sent him tumbling through the dirt a good two meters away and sent chains of pain coursing through his chest.

"Yun!" Ashley cried out,

"I'm fine!" said the Corpoal, as he spat out a glob of blood onto the sand and weakly crawled away, "keep going, I'll catch up soon!"

One of the Brutes, noticing that it had not killed the man, ran towards him to finish the job while the other broke off to deal with the rest of the survivors.

Yun reached for his Piranha only to find that it was out of his reach. Seeing that the Brute was closing in, he unholstered one of his N7 Eagles and pulled the trigger.

But the constant stream of bullets were simply absorbed into the Brute's body, whatever pain it might have felt was ignored as it continued trucking on.

When his weapon clicked empty, Yun summoned his biotics and threw a powerful warp attack at the Brute.

The biotic missile struck the bug dead on, this time a large chunk of flesh came off of the Brute's chest. But it simply ignored the damaged and continued.

Ashley fired on the second Brute as it approached their on foot convoy. She must have gotten its attention because it abandoned pursuit of the colonists in favor of attacking her.

"Oh crap," she cursed as the Brute barreled through her, knocking the Spectre onto the ground.

Noticing that she was no longer in front of it, the Brute turned a full 180 and charged again. Ashley was just barely recovering from being run over when the massive bug grabbed her by the waist in its large hand and smashed her into the ground before lifting her up into the air.

Taking advantage of the lull in motion, Ashley unholstered her pistol and emptied an entire clip right into the bug's eyeless face. She must have scored a lucky shot because it suddenly reeled in pain and let her go.

Yun was having much less success, he tossed another warp at the Brute. This time the biotic power tore off a piece of its ribcage but it still did not stop.

Time for a change in tactics

Summoning his biotic power again, Yun turned his palm up and lifted. The Brute, still charging, was shrouded in a blue aura before being grabbed off its feet and left to flail harmlessly in the air.

Yun suddenly disappeared in a flash of blue as he biotically rammed the still airborne bug, sending it flying into a wall.

But that wasn't the end of it. Yun called upon his power again, grabbed the Brute from the air, and slammed it into the ground.

The Brute greeted the planet's surface with a sickening crack.

Ashley recovered her Revenant, this time she switched her shots to use incendiary ammo and unloaded on the thing. The flaming bullets did the trick and burned through the Brute's tough hide. It buckled under Ashley's assault but when her clip overheated, it was amazingly still alive.

"Heads up!" she heard and turned to see King readying his grenade launcher.

She quickly dove away and King fired a single shell. The Brute exploded into pieces as the grenade tore it apart, leaving nothing but fist sized chunks.

Yun, confident that his Brute had been dealt with, began to walk away. But that only let the big Bug to recover and sucker punch the man.

Dazed and on his back, Yun could do nothing as the Brute lifted its foot to crush his head.

Gabriel closed his eyes acceptingly.

But then came the Russian to the rescue. Breznev had snuck behind the Brute and now was on its back with one of his shivs, viciously stabbing it over and over again.

"умереть кусок дерьма!" yelled Breznev,

When his shiv finally melted, Breznev tossed the useless hunk of metal away and drew another one to resume his stabbing.

The Brute however, managed to grab the Russian marine from off its back and hold him out in front of it. It stared at him menacingly and opened its large jaws, revealing its inner mouth which was slowly coming out.

Breznev just smiled, up came his knife hand. He sunk the blade deep into the roof of the Brute's mouth. The weapon slipped into the alien's brain and caused it to immediately seize up, the next second it dropped to the ground like a tall tree.

Breznev landed cleanly on his feet and dusted himself off before offering a hand to Yun. The Corporal took the hand and allowed the Russian to pull him to his feet.

"How'd you know how to do that?" asked Yun,

"you learn these things as a doctor," explained Breznev with a small smile.

Yun was about to make a smart remark on playing doctor. But that was before a black barbed blade burst through Breznev's chest and lifted him high into the air.

"NO!" yelled Yun,

The Russian marine clung to life and looked down at the instrument of his own demise. Then he was moving, still living he was brought face to face with the ugly bug he'd shot not too long ago.

Its face was the most disgusting thing he'd ever seen.

Breznev smiled as blood trickled down his chin. He gathered a large glob of it in his mouth and spat it out onto Ugly's face.

Ugly's response was to open his mouth and let its inner mouth shoot through the Russian's forehead.

It then tossed the dead man's body away carelessly and turned its attention to the remaining human.

"Son of a bitch!"

Ugly turned its head, only to have its face receive a biotically powered punch. So strong was the strike that it actually stumbled back a few steps.

"Yeah! You feel that you ugly prick?!"

Ugly's response was swing its tail around, striking Yun in the midsection, send him flying through a window and tumbling into someone's table.

"Ow," groaned Yun as he lay on the broken remains of the table.

Unfortunately for him, Ugly burst through the house's door. Yun quickly pushed himself up and launched the strongest biotic push he could muster. The blue aura shoved Ugly right back out, but did little more than to slow him down.

Yun began to look for a means of escape, when he heard a scuffle of movement in the room.

Turning on his feel and whipping out his Eagle, he prepared to face down whatever bug there. But it wasn't a bug, it was his sister.

"Alison?"

The dark haired woman he would recognize anywhere, peeked over the kitchen counter, her eyes full of fear.

"Gabe?"

"Alison!" Gabriel cheered as he jumped over the counter and prepared to envelope her in a big bear hug. But that idea was quickly pulled from his thoughts when his sister's eyes widened and she screamed.

"Gabe look out!"

Yun whipped around to see a trio of bugs had entered the building, two of human make and another from a Turian.

Yun instinctively snapped his pistol up and fired two quick bursts. The first caught a human bug dead center in the dome, the second was a bit off and hit the turian bug in the shoulder.

As the Turian made bug screeched in pain, the third bug pounced over the counter to attack. Yun grabbed it out of the air with his biotics and tossed it against the wall, breaking its bones.

He turned to finish off the Turian bug, when Ugly suddenly came bursting through the door again. The Turian bug was shoved aside as the much larger monster made a beeline for Gabriel and his sister.

"Alison run!" ordered Gabe as he gathered up his biotic power.

"But Gabe-"

"Go!" he yelled and charged at Ugly.

He struck out with a biotic kick which connected to Ugly's midsection. The big bug stumbled back and swiped and Yun with its claws, but the human ducked under and unleashed a combo of biotically infused strikes with his hands.

But it did little more than annoy the alien and smash him against the walls.

Having had enough of the pesky little human, Ugly back handed Yun and sent him sprawling to the ground. Giving no time to recover, the alien then scooped him up in its large boney hands and roared in his face.

Gabriel was in a daze now, this bug was strong, too strong. But he was shaken from his confusion when he heard a recognizable scream. He turned his neck as far as he could and was able to just catch a glimpse of his sister.

Much to his horror she was being dragged away by xeno, screaming and kicking as it held her by the leg and took her away.

"No!" he yelled, knowing what would be done with her. Images of the colonists, cocooned to the wall, with those little facehuggers latched onto their heads filled his mind.

Yun desperately attempted to summon his biotics again though his body screamed for him not to. But Ugly wouldn't have any of it.

The monster slammed him down on to the ground, then violently tossed him against the wall, before wrapping its spine like tail around the human's neck.

Yun clawed at the tail with his hands, his lungs began to beg for air. But Ugly's tail was like a massive snake, just one giant muscle built to squeeze the life out of him.

He tried to yell out for help but when he opened his mouth nothing came out.

Before long his vision began to blur.

His eyelids grew heavy.

And soon all he knew was the dark.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Preparations

Sgt. Drake was having a bad day.

First she lost most of her squad to bugs, then her commanding officer killed, and now her ship was being swarmed by Cerberus bastards. God must have had it out for her today.

There were only a dozen active marines left on the Salem, around a third of those were badly injured from the skirmish on Mars and unable to fight.

Sgt. Drake led those that could in a desperate defense against the Cerberus boarding party. They had managed to bottle neck their attackers into coming down a single corridor by manually locking all other possible means of access.

Drake had ordered a barricade made in the corridor, allowing the marines to dig in and hold their position with greater efficiency.

"Keep your eyes down range," ordered the Sergeant to four marines, "if you see even a hint of Cerberus activity coming down that hall I want one of you to raise the alarm."

"Yes ma'am!"

Drake shouldered her shotgun and moved into the med-bay to check on the rest of her men. She first moved into the clinic where those that had been injured were being tended to.

"How're we holding up Doc?" Drake asked Dr. Shinoda, the Salem's chief medical officer.

"As best as we can," said the elderly Japanese woman, "we still have power so me and my team can commence with any needed surgeries. In addition we a good deal of medi-gel, though I suspect our attackers have more now that they have access to the cargo bay."

"Do you think it's possible you can get any of the men combat ready? I need all the rifles I can get,"

"Maybe a few, Jenkins for instance needs to only have his burns treated. But I don't know how much use they'll be, after treatment they're most likely to be fatigued and in need of rest."

"These are marines not school kids," reminded Drake, "I'm sure they can-"

The sergeant was cut off by the sudden sound of gunfire.

"They're attacking!" she heard from the barricade.

Drake immediately unshouldered her shotgun and ran for the corridor. When she arrived she found that the Cerberus forces were already retreating.

One new body clad in the distinct Cerberus white was in the hall now, that alone was worth coming over.

"Status!" ordered Drake.

"No casualties on our side," replied a Corporal, "managed to kill one of theirs. They've retreated for now but I'm sure they'll be back."

"Good work," said Drake, "keep it up."

"Ma'am, how long are we going to have to keep this up?" asked a young female private

"I don't know," said Drake, "don't worry though, if we survived that hell planet side we can survive a simple hold out."

With that said, Drake returned to her other duties.

Their attackers came in waves, poking and prodding the marines defenses. So far they had managed to take out a few Cerberus troopers with only one injury on their side.

Drake hoped Cerberus's unwillingness to launch a full on strike meant that they were short on men. Unfortunately Drake suspected that the real answer was that Cerberus didn't consider them only a minor threat, one that could be taken care of at any time.

She shook those thoughts from her head, now was not the time to be thinking like that. She had to hold strong for her men, if she cracked so would they.

Drake moved over to where a few marines were taking stock of what equipment they had.

"Sgt. Drake," saluted a PFC, "I've taken inventory just like you ordered."

"What do we got?"

"3 Avenger rifles, 2 Katana shotguns, and 4 Predator pistols, all in good working condition but we're a little short on thermal clips."

"How short?" asked Drake,

"Only a small crate's worth. The good news is that we've got enough food and water here to last us all at least a week, maybe two if we ration."

"Good work," said the Sergeant, secure all of it safely and get yourself a bit of rest.

"Yes ma'am,"

As good as the news was, Drake knew that their chances were still slim. It was going to take a miracle to get them out of this one.

#

Captain Vilmos stood tall, looking over the Salem's Galaxy Map. He was quite pleased with how things were progressing. They had successfully taken the Alliance frigate and were in the process of making sure all personal were in compliance with them.

There were a few hold outs but with over two dozen Cerberus troops under his command Vilmos hardly believed they would be a problem. All they needed to do was chip away at the marines foundation until they finally caved in.

To be honest he was quite surprised to find that the Alliance had adopted Cerberus's innovations to their own ships. The Salem was larger than what Alliance frigates had been before the Reaper wars and the layout was quite similar to their own.

Vilmos suspected that it had something to do with Commander Shepard's ship, the Normandy SR-2. Brilliantdesign, great ship, Vilmos himself hoped to one day see it.

But for now he would have to settle for this.

They're current objective was currently to contact command for further instruction. However, contacting command was a bit tricky, especially from an Alliance vessel.

For one thing Cerberus coms didn't use a single frequency, they used multiple ones at the same time. That way the Alliance never listen in on a full conversation if they ever managed to tap in.

It took a bit of work, but Vilmos eventually got through.

"This is Captain Vilmos of the 4th Platoon, 2nd squad, I'm reporting in to inform Cerberus command that the mission is a success. Repeat, the mission is a success."

A few seconds passed before a voice finally replied.

"_This is General Oleg Petrovsky, we read you Captain. I am pleased to hear of your success. You are to be commended."_

"Thank you General, but we've hit a small snag. Our ship was crippled by Alliance forces, I'm currently contacting you through a commandeered Alliance frigate. But as you know, protocol states no Alliance vessel's may be flown back to our base of operations until examined by a specialized team."

"_Indeed, this leaves you in quite the situation Captain. You cannot fly the ship back but at the same time the objective must be delivered to our scientists."_ The General paused, _"I am sending a rescue party for you. Once they arrive your surviving men will be transported back to Omega."_

"Thank you General, we'll hold position until then. Vilmos out," The Captain then turned to his men and barked, "Alright, I want this ship secured until the rescue party comes. Bravo Squad secure engineering, Charile Squad you've got the Barracks, Delta stay here on CIC, Echo squad will guard the hangers. Move out!"

"Yes sir!" The squads moved to their designated tasks.

Echo squad, comprised of four men, took the elevator down to the hanger. There they fanned out, and made sure that no one was hiding.

One trooper moved to the Kodiaks still docked there and casually placed his hand on the shuttle's hull. When he removed his hand however, he found a strange sticky substance on his glove.

"Ech," he groaned, wiping his hand, "bloody Alliance can't even keep their stuff clean."

#

"Go! Go!" ordered Ashley as she ushered the colonists and surviving marines into the building. The bugs had suddenly pulled back, Ashley didn't know why they had given them a reprieve but she wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth.

"Come on! Everybody inside!" When the last colonist ran through the doors, King came up to her.

"Where are Yun and Breznev?" she asked,

"They aren't already inside?"

"No, I lost sight of them after the Brutes attacked. They must've gotten separated or something, try raising them on the COM."

King nodded and touched a finger to his earpiece, "Yun! Breznev! Sound off! Where are you guys?!"

Only static responded.

"Spark," Ashley spoke into her COM, "can you raise Cpl. Yun or Pvt. Breznev? We got separated from them and can't raise them on the COM."

"Negative," replied Spark, "I have lost signals to both Yun Corporal and Breznev Medic. It is likely that they have been taken by the enemy."

"What?! No! Damn it keep trying! I'm not giving up on either of them until I see their bodies for myself!" she ordered as King and her stepped back into the building and sealed the door behind them.

Ashley then turned to Lyreel, "see to your people, we'll share any supplies that we have. Gather anyone willing to hold a rifle up to the security room on the second floor."

"I'll do that, and thank you for getting us here," said Lyreel.

Ashley nodded then went to the marines, "all of you, with me."

The group traveled up to the Security room where Sgt. Johnson and Spark were heavily focused on the cameras.

Johnson whirled around and snapped to a salute, "ma'am! Damn fine work you've done here, with this many to help us, we might have a real chance at pulling this off."

"Agreed, have you and Spark found anything on the cameras? Anything pertaining to where Yun or Breznev are?"

Johnson shook his head ruefully, "no ma'am, only a good look of a whole lot of nothing. The bugs are leaving us alone, figure that just means they're finished with us for now."

Ashley cursed, "Damn it, not another two."

"Figures," said a familiar British woman who had been sitting in the corner until now, "with her in charge, it's no wonder we lost another two."

At the sound of Octavia's voice, Ashley tensed up.

"I served with those two for over five years! They survived everything! But a few days under your command and they die. I'm not even surprised really, it was predictable."

Ashley's hand balled into a fist but she kept herself in check.

"Octavia, you're words border on insubordination. The only reason I haven't had you thrown into the brig yet is because I need anyone who can hold a gun right now. Even your disrespectful ass, so stow your shit until we're out of this."

"Or what?" challenged the marine,

"Or I will have you bound and gagged, then dishonorably discharged," replied Ashley, "so either shut up, or fall in."

Octavia scowled at Ashley then pushed passed the marines to leave the room.

"I'll deal with her later ma'am," assured Johnson.

"See that you do, we can't afford to have our unit falling apart, not now," said Ashley, she then turned to the new marines under her command.

"Men, our mission is to hold this building until the Alliance arrives and sends us an evac. Until then, the six of you will help make this place a fortress," she then turned to Johnson, "Sgt. Johnson, assign these men as you see fit. We need to lock this place down."

"Yes ma'am," nodded Johnson, "come on boys and girls it's time to break out the barbed wire."

When they had all left, Ashley collapsed into a chair and hid her face behind her hands. She had lost another two men, two!

The Williams curse continued it seemed.

Her father would be disgusted with the way she was acting right now, breaking down like some FNG. But right now she couldn't help it, she couldn't help but feel like she was letting her entire family down.

_Come on! Get up! Get focused! Get organize!_

She screamed these words at herself but they had no effect. She couldn't feel her drive anymore, those bugs had taken it away. How could you fight something that had no fear, no conscious, and no hesitation.

She might be a Spectre, but she was only human.

Right about now is when Yun would walk in, most likely smoking, and say something annoying. The man was incredibly irritating but from what Williams had seen he was also a rock. Despite everything that was happening he remained calm and even cheerful.

And despite her own outward disposition towards him, Ashley had appreciated his attitude to a certain degree.

How the hell did he do it?

She would never know now that he was dead.

"Williams Spectre," said Spark, suddenly snapping Ashley out of her thoughts, "I have not found Yun Corporal but I may have a way to do so."

Ashley sprang to her feet, "you do? How?"

"Before the squad descended into the creatures nest, we gave Yun Corporal an experimental piece of technology. A headset that provided him with a heads up display that is superior to his own. Among being able to locate targets, connect to the extranet, and scan the bio-signatures of all organics, it also has a VI interface."

"Before giving it to him, I downloaded a piece of my own protocol into the headset. Therefore I could always see what he saw. I can use this now to locate him and find out what happened during the fight."

"You can? That's great! Do it now," acknowledged, "connecting to the headset's signal now. Spark suddenly went very still, rigid as a statue while Ashley waited for results. A few seconds went by before Spark spoke again.

"We are review footage that Yun's HUD took during the fight…it appears that Pvt. Breznev is no longer operational. Cause of death: head cavity."

Ashley visibly deflated a bit, "and Yun? Is he dead too?"

"Checking, one moment please…Cpl. Yun is…alive."

"He is? Where is he?!" asked Ashley, overjoyed.

"Cpl. Yun has been captured by the xenomorphs and is being taken into the direction of their hive. I estimate a 95.672% chance that he will be used as an incubator for their larva and a 5.328% chance that he will be used for food."

"Can you contact him?"

"I will attempt to," replied Spark, "…Cpl. Yun, Cpl. Yun, please respond."

#

"how do you feel?" asked Alison,

"Terrible," replied Gabriel from on his hospital bed. He reached out for a cup of water but when he grabbed it the cup caved in from the pressure and broke.

"God damn it," he cursed before reaching for another cup. This one did not break when he flexed his mechanical fingers around it. But upon attempting to lift it to his face it was shown that his trajectory was off resulting in Gabriel dowsing himself in water.

"Fuck," he cursed again, "stupid pieces of…"

"it'll take some getting used to," said Alison, "but before long they'll be just like your old ones."

"Doubted it," muttered Gabriel as he picked up a third cup and slowly guided it to his lips.

"I thought you'd be happy to have your hands back," said Alison, a bit hurt. "I designed these myself."

"I know, I know, its just…" Yun trailed off, he lifted his hand up and carefully wrapped his fingers around Alison's hand. "I can't even feel you're hand anymore, it's almost torture."

#

"_Cpl. Yun,_ _Cpl. Yun, please respond."_

Reality came rushing back to Yun, he blinked rapidly in an attempt to shake himself awake as soon as possible. At first he thought the darkness was a result of his injuries, but he soon realized that he was back in those damn catacombs.

Was he moving?

Who was dragging him?

Yun craned his neck for a better view and barely stopped himself from yelling out. A bug, regular drone by the looks of it, was dragging him by the ankle deeper into the catacombs.

The human didn't see any resin or bodies yet so chances were they weren't quite in the hive just yet. The bug also seemed oblivious to the fact its victim was now conscious.

Yun reached for a weapon only to find he had none.

That left him with one choice.

Summoning his biotics, the bug suddenly found itself surrounded by an aura of blue. Yun threw out his hand and tossed the thing away. It hit the cavern wall with a juicy crunch then tumbled to the floor.

Yun suddenly heard a screech from behind, he whipped around to see two more drones coming for him.

Without hesitation, Yun gathered biotic energy in his hand and reformed it into two whips. He drew both above his head and slammed them onto the ground. The resulting smash crushed one of the bugs instantly, reducing it to no more than a pulpy mass.

The other kept charging, Yun lashed out with his right whip. The rope of biotic energy wrapped itself around the bug's neck; Yun jerked his hand back and decapitated the bug.

Upon dismissing the whips, Yun immediately fell to his knees. It was nice to know that he could still do that trick but damn, what a headache.

"_Cpl. Yun, please respond."_

"I'm here, I'm here," he finally replied, bringing up the HUD from Spark's fancy toy. The HUD gave him a readout of his own vitals, apparently he had two fractured ribs, a torn Achilles tendon, and several minor lacerations. Besides all of that he was quite healthy.

He reached up to his ear in order to speak through his COM unit, only to find that it wasn't there. But if it wasn't there, how was he hearing Spark?

"_Cpl. Yun, I am not speaking to you through your COM unit. I am speaking through the device I gave you. Based on your vitals, it seems that you will live."_

"Uh…yeah, I will. Where am I?" he asked,

"_You are in the catacombs beneath the colony, it appears that there is more than one route underground. The xenomorphs most likely took you down one of these routes to be taken to the hive an assimilated."_

"Yeah, figured that myself. Any ideas on getting me out?" he asked,

"_The most suitable and quickest way would be for you to make your way to the original hive and use the elevator to escape."_

"Whoa, wait. You mean I have to go to the place that they wanted to take me to in the first place?" he asked, "seriously?"

"_Yes,"_

Yun sighed, "fine, I guess. Hey I don't suppose the LC is there with you?"

"_Spectre Williams is currently with me in the City Hall security room,"_

"Do you think you can patch her through?"

"_A moment…you may now speak to her."_

"_Yun, is that you?"_ asked the voice of Ashley,

Yun smiled, "hey there beautiful, how are you? Sorry I didn't tell you about taking off, I was kind of dragged out the door."

"_Yun, now is really not the right time. You're in the middle of a nest of bugs from hell, get out now, flirt later."_

"Yes ma'am," chuckled Yun, "still, it's good to hear your voice LC, these bugs all sound the same and they have terrible bed side manners."

"_Yun,"_ warned Ashley,

"Alright, alright, I'm going," he assured, "if I only knew which way to go."

"_I shall guide you,"_ said Spark's voice this time, _"follow the arrow on your HUD, it will lead you out."_

"Thanks buddy, call you later when I've got myself sorted out."

#

Ashley collapsed back into her chair, but this time out of relief. It was good to know that one of her men were still alive and kicking. She just hoped Yun could make it out of those catacombs. Had it not been for the fact that they had civilians here to protect, she might have ordered a rescue mission.

"you seem to be experiencing joy Spectre Williams," noted Spark,

"Why shouldn't I? Yun's alive, that pig is still around to irritate the hell out of me," she chuckled, "after all we've been through, we could use a bit of good news."

"I see, that is understandable, shall I go inform the rest of the squad that Cpl. Yun is still alive?"

Ashley nodded, "No, that's alright, I'll go tell them. You keep monitoring those cameras, just because we've got good news doesn't mean we should let our guard down."

"Acknowledged, manning security cameras now."

Williams then exited the room and made her way down to the second floor. There she found Sgt. Johnson barking out orders to the new marines along with Lyreel, who was coordinating the civilians.

"Get those windows barricaded good boys, we don't want them bursting in through there. You two, double time it with sealing those vents, if I get dragged down one of those things I'm coming back to haunt both of your asses!"

"Keeping everyone busy Sergeant?"

"ma'am!" saluted Johnson, "yes ma'am. We're turning this place into a proper bunker. Pretty soon not even a fly is gonna be able to slip through without getting a bullet to its brain."

"We've also set up auto turrets outside," added Lyreel, "they'll hopefully keep the bugs away but don't expect them to do all the work."

"Understood. Sergeant, I have good news, Yun is still alive."

"He is? Ha! That lucky son of a bitch, where did he run off to now?"

"In the catacombs under the colony, but don't worry, Spark is working on getting him out of there."

"The catacombs? Damn, I wouldn't want to be him right now. But Yun is a tough son of a bitch, if anyone could get out of there he could."

Ashley nodded, "just concentrate on fortifying our defenses right now, then get some rest."

"Yes ma'am, thank you ma'am"

The Spectre then turned to their resident Turian.

"How are your people doing Lyreel?"

"Well, they've calmed down a bit now that they're in a building that can actually protect them. I must say that I'm impressed, you're people are very professional."

"Thanks, nice to know we're good representatives," said Ash, "I wanted to ask though, did you know anything about what the scientists found in those tunnels? Or where these things came from?"

"None of the colonists knew what was going on with those tunnels. We all just kind of ignored it, had enough problems as it was without getting into other people's business. As for the bugs, not a clue. I suspect they came out of the tunnels but my knowledge of them extends only as far as how to kill them, except for Ugly, not quite sure how to put down that one."

"Ugly, that's the code name you came up for that big one?" asked Ash,

"Yeah," said Lyreel with a bit of remorse in her voice, "that thing has caused me and my people a lot of trouble."

"What can you tell me about it?"

"Ugly is kind of like the bugs Alpha male, from what I've seen other bugs take cues from him. He roars for them to charge, they charge. He screams for them to pull back, they pull back. He's also bullet proof and stronger than a Krogan. Klonc had a brother who tried to head butt Ugly, Ugly tore out his throat. I lost a lot of good people to that thing."

"Why do you call him Ugly?"

"Why else? Cause he's ugly, really ugly. You probably haven't seen his face yet, but I guarantee that it is probably one of the most disturbing things you'll ever see. Most of these things have a smooth dome kind of head, no eyes or facial features. I figure something went wrong while Ugly grew up, his face looks like someone melted it into a human skull."

"My team found out that these things come out of us. They plant some sort of embryo in us, then when the embryo matures it breaks out and matures into one of them."

"Seriously, Sprits help us. That would explain why some of them had Turian fringes or Salarian horns."

"Do you think Ugly came out of a human?"

"Possibly," said the Turian, thoughtfully rubbing her chin, "that would explain his face, but not why he's bigger or stronger."

"Well, I'm sure once we get off this planet the Alliance eggheads will figure it out."

"Hmm, well, as long as we get off planet at all. If you'll excuse me, I have more work to do."

"Of course," nodded Ashley, truth be told she could use a bit of rest. The Spectre walked back up to the Security room and decided to catch a few winks of rest in a chair.

"Spark, if anything happens, wake me."

"Acknowledged."

#

Yun continued to follow the little arrow at the top of his HUD for another half an hour. That was thirty minutes of pure dark, damp, and cold tunnel that Yun had to endure.

But it was a quiet thirty minutes where he met no opposition and that fact by itself was enough to make Yun happy.

Still, he couldn't help but feel very small in this darkness.

Humans went to sleep at night for a reason, it was because their eyes were near useless in the dark. In the dark they were no longer the most dangerous, Yun suspected that the bugs did not have this problem.

For all he knew one of them could be right above him, prepared to snatch him-

Yun suddenly felt something grab his shoulders. He turned his eyes upwards and saw a flash of silver teeth.

Reacting on instinct, Yun punched the bug and made it release him. Then he summoned his biotic powers and ripped the bug down from the ceiling.

Before it could recover, he fired a warp at it. The biotic missile ripped through the bug's molecular structure and killed it instantly.

Hopefully this one was alone.

Yun heard a screech.

It wasn't alone.

Yun lit up his biotics to provide him with some small amount of light. It wasn't much but it was better than fighting in the dark.

The marine heard a scuffle of motion behind him. He whirled around and tried to catch a glimpse of his target but saw only darkness.

A hiss came from the side, he turned but found nothing.

Yun's heart rate began to elevate, he tried to slow his breathing but failed.

Another rush of movement, this one from his right and sounding much closer, but again he could see nothing.

The marine dared not move, he felt that if he did the bugs would suddenly come burst out at him. He knew he was being stalked, the question was how to fight back?

He couldn't fight something he couldn't see.

Suddenly Yun found himself face first on the ground with something heavy on his back. Claws dug into his shoulder and kept him pinned to the ground.

He could feel the thing breathing down his neck and knew it was going to finish him execution style. That was not going to happen.

With a burst of biotic power the bug was sent flying away. Yun jumped to his feet, he caught a quick glimpse of his attacker before it disappeared back into the darkness.

"This is nuts," he muttered, then another bug jumped out at him. The Corporal barely had enough time to throw up his hands in defense.

The drone lashed out with its claws and scrapped them against Yun's arm but left him unharmed. Yun quickly retaliated with a Warp that immediately killed the monster.

But his victory was short lived as a black barbed tail suddenly shot out at him. Yun side stepped at the last minute but the tail's blade nicked his shoulder.

The tail retracted back into the darkness and disappeared. Before he could prepare himself, it lashed out again, this time nearly striking him in the gut.

The third time it came out at him it cut a thin line across his cheek.

"God damn it," cursed the human, "okay buddy, now I'm pissed."

The tail came at him again, but this time Yun caught it before it had a chance to retract. This must have caught the bug off guard because Yun had no trouble dragging the thing into his field of vision.

It kicked and screeched but was silent when Yun delivered a biotic kick to its neck, breaking it.

Breathing heavily, Yun listened for any sign that there were others. He heard nothing more than his own ragged breathing.

Not wanting to stick around to find out anything more, he quickly ran in the direction the arrow on his HUD pointed.

How long he ran became irrelevant, but eventually he did start seeing some familiarity. The walls were caked with that same sticky resin that they had first encountered when descending into the Hive and yes bodies of colonists were stuck onto the wall, their chest's broken open.

Yun tried not to think of the possibility that Alison was down here somewhere. Every part of him wanted to call out for her but if he did that then it was more than likely he'd wake up the whole hive.

But damn it, he needed to find his sister.

But there was no way he could find her on his own, he would need help.

Yun suddenly heard the sound of footsteps, he looked around a corner and spotted a good deal of bugs gathering. Worse, he saw the big bug who'd choked him out and dragged him down to this little slice of hell.

Even worse than that was the fact that they were all headed in his direction.

Yun spotted a small alcove in the wall and quickly squeezed himself into it. Not the best plan he ever had but one had to think quick on his feet in these situation.

Almost as soon as Yun had flattened himself against the alcove's wall, a bug came bounding past like black lightning. That bug was soon followed by another, and another, and another. Dozens of black insect like creatures came running past Yun's little hiding spot.

The human spotted human made bugs, Turian made bugs, Salarian made bugs, those Krogan made bugs christened Brutes, and even those ones with giant heads called Chargers.

It was like the whole damn hive was up and out of bed to be at some giant family gathering. Yun felt like he knew where that gathering would be too.

"Spark," he whispered, "Spark, you there?"

"_Cpl. Yun, is there a problem? Your heart rate and breathing are at elevated levels,"_

"Yeah I'm fine but I think-"

A black form suddenly appeared right outside of Yun's hiding spot.

"Jeez," he whispered harshly before remembering to keep quiet. The human pressed himself as hard as humanly possible into the back of the alcove and prayed to God Almighty that the thing wouldn't sense him.

The bug didn't seem to be investigating his hiding spot in particular, it just seemed to be moving slower than others. Upon closer inspection, Yun realized that this bug was different from any others he'd seen.

It was slightly lighter in color, more of a dark gray than a solid black.

The bug stood straighter than most of its siblings, it was almost elegant in its posture. The thing's body was also disturbingly feminine and curvy.

In addition its head was unlike the others in that it was very round, not at all elongated or phallic like the others. In fact, it looked very familiar to a certain blue skinned alien species that he knew.

The bug turned its head slightly and Yun caught a glimpse of its eyeless face and mouth full of short razor sharp teeth.

It was then he knew what he was looking at: an Asari born bug.

The Alliance marine had a bad feeling that this strain of bug's host may have also provided it with more than a different look.

His fear were confirmed when the bug opened its mouth to screech and its body suddenly lit up with blue fire. A moment later it disappeared in a brilliant flash of blue.

These things could use biotics! They were like the Banshees of the Reaper army!

What the fuck kind of animals take the biotic powers of other species?! Were these things even animals?!

"Spark," whispered Yun into his headset, "there's a lot of bugs down here and they're all moving in one direction. Now normally I can't tell North from West on the surface, much less down here. But I've got the feeling that those bugs are headed your way."

"_Acknowledged, I will warn Williams Spectre and aid in preparing our defenses."_

"Good idea," whispered Yun, peaking his head out when no more of the bugs were in sight, "I'm going to go silent until I get back to the surface, can't risk these things hearing me."

"_Acknowledged, will maintain radio silence until then."_

When he was absolutely sure that he was alone, Yun carefully edged his way out of the alcove and out into the very large tunnel.

"I have to get out of here, get help, come back, and find Alison," he whispered.

Yun hypothesized that if those bugs were heading towards City Hall, then following them should bring him there too.

Taking a deep breath, he took his first step towards following the stampede of bugs.

He moved to take his second step when suddenly he felt the ground shudder beneath his feet. The man immediately froze up.

The reverberations became rhythmic, timed, almost like foot steps.

Yun heard a low, deep, hiss.

He swallowed hard and slowly turned around. A large dark form moved around the corner, with every step it took the ground beneath it trembled.

"No…no…you've got to be shitting me!" pleaded Yun,

The massive bug turned its head and Yun saw the familiar face of Ugly.

"Son of a bitch!" the man didn't wait to see if the thing had spotted him.

He simply turned tail and ran.

#

Ashley woke with a start as she felt something shaking her. She took a moment to blink the sleep away from her eyes and was greeted by a bright light.

"Williams Spectre, Williams Spectre, I require your attention. Please cease your recharging cycle," she heard a familiar monotone voice say.

She opened her eyes fully to find Spark hovering over her, its flashlight like eye shining into her face.

"Hmm? What is it Spark?"

"I have just received communications with Cpl. Yun. He has reported that a large force of xenomorphs are moving through their tunnels and are most likely on their way here. I thought it prudent to inform you."

Ashley immediately jumped out of her chair.

"Man those cameras, I want updates on what you see every 5 minutes, no exceptions!"

"Yes Spectre,"

Ashley grabbed her weapons and donned her helmet then rushed out the door. Fast as she could she made her way down to the first floor where Sgt. Johnson was overseeing the fortifying of their base.

"Use the scrap to totally seal that window, no cracks," he ordered, "you two, move that cabinet in front of the door, best be sure nothing can make it through."

"Sergeant!"

"Ma'am!" Johnson saluted, "I have the situation down here under control, we're almost completely done fortifying-"

"Yun just reported in with Spark, he says there's a lot of bugs headed this way. Knowing those things they'll be here soon."

The Sergeant's eyes widened for a brief moment before they steeled themselves and he turned back to his men.

"Marines! To your posts! We've got hostiles on their way to join our little party! It's time to roll out our welcome mat! Everybody to your posts!" he bellowed, the men immediately dropped whatever they were doing and began moving to their predesignated positions. Even some of the colonists moved like a machine, those who could not fight were hidden and guarded, those that could took up arms with the marines.

"How secure is our base now?" asked Ashley as she and the Sergeant began to make their way back up to the security room.

"Tighter than a catholic school girl's legs," replied Johnson, "I made sure the boys covered every possible entry point. All the windows are sealed up, all the doors are locked down and can be welded on a moment's notice, and all ventilation shafts have been stuffed. In addition to that we've got men at every possible entry point, nothing is getting in here without a fight."

The door to the security room opened, inside they found Spark along with Lyreel manning the security cameras, along with two marines who immediately saluted.

"Spark, talk to me, is there anything on the camera's?" asked Johnson,

"None Sergeant Johnson, all sectors have been monitored and there are no signs of movement."

"Don't trust just your eyes," warned Lyreel, "just because you don't see anything doesn't mean they aren't there."

"Maybe we got them demoralized," joked one of the marines,

"Shut up man," said the other,

"They're coming," assured Ashley, "we might have a better defense now but we're also all clustered into a single spot for them. All they have to do is crack our shell and drag us all out."

"Well, they're gonna need a pretty damn strong hammer to crack our shell," said Johnson, "cause there isn't anything that they've got, that we can't-"

Johnson's speech came to an abrupt halt when suddenly the entire room became cloaked in darkness and security monitors all shut down. From below a few cries of surprise were heard and a resounding sense of dread fell over all inside the building.

"They cut the power"


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Last Stand

"They cut the power," whispered Ashley, terror already building in her gut.

"What? **They** cut the power?" asked one of the marines,

"How could they cut the power? They're animals!" protested the other.

"Shut it you two!" growled Johnson, "Sparky, you got anything?"

"Cameras have been shut down by the loss of power. It will take exactly 3 minutes for the Security room's backup generators to come online. Until then I have as much knowledge of our situation as either of you."

"God damn it!" cursed Johnson, he pressed a finger to his earpiece and spoke, _"someone get the emergency lights on! Everyone else, take off your safeties and get ready for some action. Chances are those bugs will be digging through the walls to get to us."_

"_Lyreel, you get your people into position too,"_ ordered Ashley,

"_Got it,"_

"_King, where are you?"_ asked Johnson,

"_At the front door Sarge, don't worry. Any of those pests come running through here, I'll use my new toy to smoke them out."_

"_What about Octavia?"_

"_I'm here too Sergeant, setting up shop on the second floor. I've got eyes on the turrets we set up outside, they're still online but aren't finding any targets."_

"_Good"_ said Johnson, _"soon as they do, get ready to-"_

"_Hold up" _interrupted Octavia, _"I think they might have picked up something…stand by…"_

The muffled sound of gunfire suddenly began to crackle through the air.

"_Contacts! The bugs are charging the front! The turrets are mowing them down as they come but there are a lot of them out there and I don't think they can get them all."_

"_Provide fire support, take down any of the bastards that get past the turrets. Conserve ammo, shoot only when you've got a clear line of sight," _ordered Johnson,

"_Copy Sarge"_ a burst of gunfire_, "we'll keep them out."_

"_Oorah marine."_

"We'd best get down there," said Ashley,

"Agreed," nodded Johnson,

"You two," he said, turning to the two marines, "stay here and guard Sparky. Do anything you can to help it."

"Yes sir!" they replied simultaneously,

"_Yahachi"_ spoke Johnson, _"where the hell are you?"_

"Here"

Johnson nearly jumped upon hearing the Japanese man's voice. He turned around and saw the man had already made his way into the security room, silent as a whisper.

"Stay here and guard Sparky. If things go to hell, we're going to need it," ordered Johnson,

Yahachi nodded and quietly took his place next to the geth.

The two officers then exited the still dark room, passed the area Octavia and a few other marines had set themselves up in, and made their way down to the first floor.

There they found groups of marines and colonists, working together to secure any possible entry points. Everyone was on edge as they listened to the sound of gunfire outside and inhuman screeches. Ashley spotted more than a few men beginning to wipe sweat from their foreheads.

Eventually they found King in front of the main entrance, the man was completely calm and held his flamethrower casually on his shoulder.

"That's right keep on knocking assholes!" yelled King, "we'll just keep on knocking back!"

"King! Report!" ordered Ashley,

"Ma'am! Defenses are holding, those turrets must be giving them hell because we haven't seen a single bug so far."

"Good, let's hope it stays that way,"

"Knowing our luck, it probably won't," said Johnson, "and who went to get those damn back up lights on?! Trust you god damn thumb suckers to not know how to push a god damn button."

"It's alright Sergeant. You stay here and keep things together, I'll go look into the generator and what happened to our men."

Johnson nodded, "thank you ma'am, but I don't intend to let you go by yourself."

"Hey! You two!" barked the Sergeant to two defenders, an Alliance marine and a Turian colonist, "go with the LC and keep her safe. Emergency generator is in the basement ma'am, good luck and stay safe."

"Will do Sergeant, come on you two."

#

Of course this would happen to her. Of course the Emergency generator would be in a basement of all places. Of course it would also be down a set of dark foreboding stairs.

"I have a bad feeling about this," commented the marine,

"What's that expression you humans have? Man the hell up?" said the Turian,

"Quiet you two," ordered Ashley, flicking on her flashlight, "let's just get down there and finish this, I'll take point."

Before setting off, Ashley radioed for Johnson to set some guards at the top of the stairs should a worst case scenario occur.

Taking a deep breath, Ashley took the first step down the stairs and tried to push away the growing unease. Johnson had said that he'd already sent men down here but for some reason they weren't responding.

Spark had suggested over the COM's that the thick walling may have had something to do with it, most likely causing a break. Ashley hoped that was the correct theory.

Eventually the three of them made it to the bottom of the stairs, there they found an open door. Shining her light inside, Ashley spotted the emergency generator. But what she didn't see was the men that had been sent before them.

Quickly, the Spectre signaled for her two comrades to stop.

"Hello?" she tried, "is anyone in there?"

When no response came Ashley tightened the grip around her weapon.

"Hello?!" she tried again, this time louder.

A few seconds passed by and still no response came.

Then suddenly, "Hello? Who's out there?"

A mixture of relief and surprise fell over the Spectre. Lowering her gun, she entered through the door and into the pitch black room.

Using her light she tried to locate the source of the voice. Eventually she spotted a lone Salarian who was busy working on the generator. Ashley's flashlight caught his eye and he immediately raised his hand up to protect his eyes.

"Hey! Don't blind me, I still need my eyes to work on this!"

"Oh, sorry," apologized the Spectre, lowering the light.

"Why are you three down here anyway?" asked the Salarian, "shouldn't you be up there with the others keeping those things away?"

"We tried to raise you on the COM's but you wouldn't respond, we feared the worst," explained the Turian,

"You did? Hmm, must be the walls in this place. They're quite thick and could easily block a radio signal," theorized the Salarian,

Ashley let out a small breath, that was a relief to hear. For a second she wondered if perhaps the bugs had somehow managed to sneak in.

"Damn man, you had us scared to death. There are guards at the top of the stairs!"

"Apologies, but I was too busy trying to fix this damn generator. Thing's wiring is beyond messed up, I just need to…there we go! Should be able to work now."

The Salarian moved to the generator's command console and began typing away, before long the generator began to cough to life and the building's lights came back on.

An audible sound sigh of relief spread through all the survivors. At least now they wouldn't be fighting in the dark.

"Haha! There we go!" cheered the Salarian, "you can all thank me later when-"

Suddenly the generator let out a loud belch of smoke and began to spark. The fan turning inside held steady for a few more moments before coming to a halt.

The hopeful lights in the building began to dim before finally dying entirely, leaving all the survivors in darkness once again.

"What the…I don't understand!" cried the Salarian as he furiously began to tap away at the console again. "I did everything right! It should be working just fine!"

"Maybe it's a mechanical failure," suggested the Turian,

"Maybe"pondered the Salarian, "let's see…"

Using his Omni-tool, the Salarian cut through the generator's metal plating and carefully removed it. He peered into the machine but found that his eyes couldn't see through the darkness, though he could hear a strange hissing sound almost like meat being fried on a pan.

Unable to work without light, the Salarian used his Omni-tool to provide him a flash light. He then stuck his head into the generator and shined the light down towards the fan.

Upon running his light over the fan, he immediately saw the problem. The damn thing was a pile of slag, entire blades were missing or melted. But why would it be like that?

The Salarian stuck his head in a little more and kept moving the light about.

His eyes caught a flicker of movement, he moved his light towards it and caught sight of something fast and pale.

The Salarian's flashlight caught up with the source of movement just enough for him to see what looked like a giant white spider with a tail. Before he could scream out a warning, the thing pounced at him.

The alien reflexively threw up his arms to protect himself but he was too slow. The spider latched onto his head tightly using all eight of its boney white digits then wrapped its spindly tail around his neck.

The Salarian's cries soon became a muffled scream for help as he desperately backed away from the generator and fell to the floor, the spider doing its deed the entire way.

"Holy shit!" yelled the human marine,

"Hold still!" ordered the Turian as he attempted to pry the spider off of the Salarian.

Ashley immediately recognized the spider as the same types she had seen from the catacombs. Dread and realization hit her fast, she quickly turned her flashlight onto the generator.

Her light revealed three more of the face latching spiders coming out. Acting quickly she lined her weapon and fired a short burst.

One spider was immediately hit and exploded in a burst of green acid. The second had two of its digits blown off and began to make a high pitched squeal. The third lived and jumped propelled itself off of the generator and at the Turian still attempting to help the now still Salarian.

The Turian, unlike the Salarian, was fast enough to throw up his hands and catch the spider before it latched onto his face. But the bug still managed to whip its tail around the Turian's neck and squeeze.

The Turian was holding strong but sooner or later he'd run out of air.

Ashley and her fellow marine were about to go and help him when a familiar hiss stopped them. The Spectre shined her light back on the generator and found to her horror that two large black bugs had already managed to crawl out of it.

One of them screeched at her upon being illuminated and immediately leapt into the air, its claws bared and ready to rip the humans apart.

Ashley instinctively threw herself back while firing a quick burst from her Revenant. The shots caught the bug in the shoulder, throwing off its trajectory.

It fell to the floor, screeching in pain as its acidic blood leaked out onto the floor.

The second bug charged at the other human, only to be blown apart by his shotgun.

Ashley, who was closer to the Turian, grabbed the still struggling facehugger and used her omni-blade to slice off its tail.

The little pale bug fell to the floor screaming, Ashley unholstered her sidearm and double tapped it.

Another screech caught her attention, even with minimal light she could see the dark forms moving out of the generator. The bugs were quickly swarming into the room and soon they'd make their way up the stairs and into their base.

Ashley couldn't let that happen.

"Retreat! Back up the stairs!" she ordered,

"Copy!" replied the marine as he pumped another shot at the oncoming bugs.

Ashley joined him in holding back the demons as they slowly made their way towards the door. But the bugs were fearless and undaunted by the human's weapons.

Worse, they knew how to use the darkness and knew that the humans did not.

More than once Ashley would take her eyes off of a bug for a few second but when she returned her vision to it the bug would have disappeared into the shadows. It was like the things could meld with darkness and pop up wherever they liked.

It was even worse when they were all moving around at blinding speeds like a pack of demonic wolves.

Ashley's finger barely left her trigger as she attempted to hold them back.

A bug ran through her field of vision, she followed it with her light and fired a stream of bullets at it. Her shots caught it in the side and it screamed. Another jumped over its brother's dead body and ran right at her.

She fired a burst into its phallic shaped head and watched it explode.

The marine next to her fired his shotgun and blew away another bug with his last round. He went to his belt for a reload only for another xeno, a Spitter, to rush up through the darkness and grab him.

Before he could retaliate, the bug opened its maw and threw up a massive load of acid onto the man's face. Unfortunately he didn't die immediately, instead he screamed as the acid burned through his skin and eventually but slowly made its way into his brain.

"Spirits!" cried the Turian,

"Fire in the hole!" Ashley unclipped a grenade from her belt and tossed it into the generator. She and the Turian turned tail and ran out the door. A moment later her grenade detonated and a wave of heat washed over them.

"Come on, up!" she yelled as they ran up the stairs.

Suddenly Ashley heard a yell and whipped around to see the Turian being dragged down the stairs by a bug. She attempted to get a line of sight on the bug but the Turian flailed around too much and before she could yell for him to stop he had already been dragged back into the basement.

"Damn it!" she cursed, double timing it up the stairs.

When she got to the top she was greeted by two marines.

"What the hell happened down there?!" demanded one of them,

"Flamethrower! Now!" she ordered, the other marine handed her the Fire Storm.

Quickly she whipped around. One marine shined his light down the stairs and immediately screamed, Ashley looked for herself and saw why. Dozens of bugs were crawling up the stairs, walls, and ceiling.

"Stand back!" Ashley pushed the marine back and aimed the flamethrower. She jammed her finger down on the trigger.

The weapon let out a loud whoosh as a stream of fire came out of its barrel. The bugs, for all their ferocity, weren't fireproof.

They quickly backed off and retreated back down the stairs. Ashley pushed out an extra stream of flame for good measure, then slammed the door shut.

"Seal that door tight!" she ordered, returning the flamethrower to the marines, "hold this position, I'll send some back up down for you."

"Yes ma'am!"

"_Johnson!"_ she yelled over the COM,

"_Ma'am? What happened? We lost contact with you, what about the lights?"_

"_We've got a situation, I don't know how but the bugs somehow crawled into the generators and are crawling over the basement."_

"_What?! Damn it, I'll get some men over there right now."_

"_Good, how are we doing at the front door?"_ asked Ashley,

"_Not too bad, they won't quit but the turrets are holding most of them back. No casualties so far and…wait…Oh shit!"_

#

The area outside of City Hall was littered with dozens of bodies belonging bugs that had charged the turrets. But evidently the bugs were smarter than the survivors had given them credit for, because they had soon realized simply throwing themselves at the colonist defenses wasn't working.

Now they were bringing in specialists.

A massive black bug holding itself on all fours with a massive crested head had appeared. Johnson recognized it from the attack the bugs had launched on their reinforcements. The big sons of bitches that enjoyed charging at their targets like a bull through a china shop.

This was bad. Those bugs had bullet proof crests, the turrets wouldn't be enough to stop them.

As if reading his thoughts, the Charger let out a loud roar and shot forward like an oversized cat with the mass of a freight train.

The turrets immediately picked it up and unleashed a torrent of lead. But every single bullet simply ricocheted harmlessly off its bony crest.

The Charger probably didn't even notice the turrets, even as it bashed them aside and smashed them into useless pieces of scrap.

"_King! Get up here!"_ Johnson roared over the COM, _"and bring your boom stick!"_

When it was done mangling the turrets, the Charger turned its attention to City Hall's front door. Like a bull, it moved back to put some distance between itself and its target then pawed the ground.

Colonists and marines on the second floor fired on it from above, but like the turrets their bullets did little more than irritate the massive bug.

The Charger suddenly exploded into motion, launching itself at the door. The entire building shook under the impact and the Charger moved back.

It pawed the ground a launched itself again.

The metal of the door screeched under the impact.

"Sarge! Sarge!"

Johnson whipped around to see King running towards him, grenade launcher in hand.

"King, come over here and kill this thing!"

King took his position next to Johnson and sighted down his target.

The building shook again from yet another of the Charger's attacks and the door screeched again, gaining another massive dent. It wouldn't be long now, just a few more good hits and the door would cave in.

But as it stepped back and prepared for another lunge, King finally zeroed in on the big bug. King squeezed the trigger of his grenade launcher and let a single explosive shell fly.

The grenade hit the Charger dead center of its head and detonated. The resulting explosion covered the big bug in fire and smoke. But even with their vision obscured, Johnson and King could still hear the bug's cries of pain.

Unfortunately the Charger still had enough life to come bursting out of the smoke and smash its head into the door again.

Johnson cursed their bad luck but took note that the Charger's crest was now cracked and bleeding in several different areas and that it was attacking with much last luster than before.

"Hit it again King!"

"Yes sir!" King lined up another shot and fired once, twice, putting in the second one for good measure.

The first shot fell a bit short and detonated right under the Charger's chin but the resulting explosion was nonetheless effective. Half of its jaw was blown off and it reared onto its back legs like a horse, wailing in agony.

The second shot struck dead center of its exposed chest. This time there were no screams of pain from the Charger, instead it simply fell to the ground on its side.

"Haha!" cheered King as did everyone else upon seeing the Charger's still corpse, "that's right you creepy crawlies! I warned you didn't I?"

"Good work Private, but this isn't…over…"

When his Sergeant trailed off, King turned to see the veteran staring out of the window in to the coppery Mars landscape. At first the big marine didn't understand why his commanding officer had stopped, but upon more careful observation he noticed a single black form in the distance standing on top of a building.

Though he couldn't make out the details, King had a good idea of which bug they were looking at: Ugly.

Which other bug would so blatantly stand out in the open.

"Orders Sarge?"

"Get ready, whenever that bug shows up something bad always happens," replied Johnson,

As if on cue, Ugly reared his head back and roared into the Mars sky. A pause of silence followed, but then there was an audible rhythmic sound akin to foot steps.

Johnson turned his vision down to the path way leading up to their front door and spotted Ugly's response to their victory.

They killed one now Ugly was giving them two more.

Two Chargers entered the path from opposite sides they shook themselves of Mars dust, pawed the ground, and charged.

"King!"

"On it!" the marine leveled his grenade launcher.

Just as he was about to fire the weapon, his vision was suddenly blocked by a wall of black. King looked up from his launcher to see a bug, holding just outside of the window, staring right at him.

"Jesus!" yelled King as the bug jumped through the window and pounced on top of him.

The bug's inner mouth shot out at him, coming up just short due to King keeping his weapon between them.

Johnson reacted immediately and kicked the alien off of the marine then riddled with bullets.

"Look out!" yelled a colonist,

A screech caught Johnson's attention, he turned his eyes towards the windows to see more bugs bursting into the building.

Marines and colonists immediately rushed up to defend. Some managed to fire their weapons and blast the attackers back out the windows. But those that were not killed leapt into the building and began to wreak havoc.

A single Turian born bug leapt into the building and began swinging its claws wildly. Three unfortunate colonists who had been too slow to get out of the way were caught in its attack.

The bug's claws ripped through their flesh and splattered blood all over the floor. They all died gurgling their own blood on the floor.

Johnson himself was nearly sliced open but managed to throw himself back then fire a burst into the bug's head.

Another bug, this one Salarian born, crawled up onto the ceiling. An Asari colonist fired her pistol at it but missed every single shot. The bug retaliated by dropping down on top of her, wrapping it's hands around her neck, and sending its inner mouth through her eye.

A Turian colonist who had been firing his weapon through the window was suddenly grabbed by a pair of black clawed hands and dragged outside, screaming as he went.

Two Salarian's fired their weapons, killing a few bugs. Suddenly one was speared through the back, a black barbed spear head sticking out of his chest. The other Salarian yelled out and fell to the ground, he clumsily tried to crawl away only to be grabbed by the ankles and get dragged out through a window.

"_Spark!"_ roared Johnson over the COM as he blew apart another bug, _"Spark! Do you read?!"_

"_Sergeant Johnson"_

"_Spark, seal the windows! Seal them now!"_ A bug charged the man and pinned him to the wall.

"_Acknowledged"_ Johnson shoved the bug away and bashed it on the side of the head with the butt of his rifle. The alien was left stunned, allowing Johnson to riddle it full of holes.

Another one jumped up to the window and was just about to climb through when King rushed up to it and introduced his boot to its teeth.

The bug wailed and lost its grip.

"Get the fuck out of my base!"

Sirens abruptly began to go off inside the building as shutters on the windows began to come down. The bugs, realizing that their entry point would soon be cut off, back down and retreated.

Not that it mattered, they'd done their damage. Five colonists now lay dead as did two Alliance marines, Johnson steely grabbed their dog tags and placed them in his pocket.

"Yeah that's right you better run!" growled King as the last bugs slipped back out through the windows.

Then a loud thud that shook the entire building caused him to fall.

Johnson realized that in the chaos of the fight they had completely forgotten about the Chargers downstairs.

"Shit! King with me! The rest of you stay up here and make sure none of those bastards slips in!"

The two marines rushed down to the first floor and made their way to the front door. There the tremors from the Charger's attacks was strongest, every time they hit the entire world seemed to shake.

Johnson could already see the metal bending in, small cracks had already appeared. Not large enough for a bug to fit through but that wouldn't matter in a few more minutes.

They needed to do something to make those Chargers back off.

An idea quickly came.

"Someone give me a Flamethrower!"

A marine tossed the Sergeant a Flamethrower, he then proceeded to stick its barrel out the same crack the Chargers had created and squeezed the trigger.

Streams of fire poured out from City Hall's front door, the Charger's despite being fireproof soon found out that they were in fact not fireproof. The flames that spewed out at them burned their bony exoskeleton and set them ablaze.

After a few tries they soon backed off and retreated.

"Their backing off!" cheered someone from upstairs,

"Alright!" whooped a marine, "I knew we could beat back those creepy sons of AHHHH!"

The covering for vent near the marine's foot suddenly burst off and from inside a pair of dark hands came out and grabbed the marine by the ankle.

He screamed as the hands pulled him down into the vent. A colonist managed to grab his hand, preventing him from sinking all the way.

"Help! Help!" he begged,

Two more colonists came and attempted to haul him up but even with their combined strength it was still a stalemate.

Then suddenly, Lyreel was there. She unholstered her sidearm and carefully aimed it down the shaft. The Turian fired three times before a screech came back up and the marine was released.

"Oh thank god, thank god," he rambled,

Ashley, who had finally arrived after securing the basement, felt a horrible truth dawn on her.

"They're inside the building,"

Another vent's covering was abruptly popped off, this time from the ceiling. A marine unfortunate enough to have been standing beneath it was grabbed and pulled up into it. This time no one was fast enough to grab him and his screams of terror continued coming through.

"They're inside!"

Flash lights danced around the room as panic began to spread among the defenders. A screech broke out and out of nowhere a trio of their attackers swooped down upon them.

Chaos ensued

This was no longer a well-planned defense, now it was every man for himself.

A marine fired wildly at the shadows, not caring if there was nothing there. A tackled him to the ground and skewered him with its barbed tail.

Two colonists, a Turian and an Asari tried backing into a corner and watching each other's flanks. A sound strategy but two of the aliens simply snuck behind them through the darkness.

The first alien pulled the Turian back and ripped out her throat with its claws. The second alien tackled the Asari and sank its tail into her chest.

The Krogan were giants in the battlefield, Klonc and another of his species were battle hardened and did not break under the chaos.

Klonc fired his shotgun once, twice, three times and blew away three bugs.

His comrade armed with an assault rifle let out a steady stream of bullets that kept their attackers at bay. As he gunned down another bug, the Krogan's gun suddenly click.

Empty

He reached down for another thermal clip and ejected the overheated one. Just as he was about to push it in a Salarian born bug leapt out at him and dragged its claws across his face. One of his eyes popped and blue blood began to drip down his face.

The Krogan then did what his kind did best, get angry.

Everything in the vision of his good eye turned red as what was known as the Krogan Blood Rage took over. Without hesitation he slammed the thermal clip in and emptied it into his attacker.

"DIE! DIE!" he roared,

As if sensing the danger the Krogan presented, the aliens began concentrating their attack on him. Alien after alien threw themselves at him, the Krogan wielded his rifle like a club and bashed them away with glee.

"HAHAHAHAHA!"

But the swarm would not be stopped. A new xeno dropped down from the ceiling and stood itself up on two legs.

Were it not pitch black, the defenders would have seen its dark grey clammy skin, it's elegant posture, and feminine shape.

It's eyeless head turned to face the Krogan still fending off the constant attacks from the hive.

The Asari born bug let out a low hiss, it raised its tail and ran towards the Krogan.

The Krogan for his part noticed the xeno charging at him, he didn't take note that it was of a different breed. He only cared that it was still alive and needed to be killed.

He charged head first, planning to crush it like all the others.

Just as the two were about to collide, the Asari xeno spun itself on its heel and whipped out its tail. The tail struck the Krogan right across the face.

With any other bug the strike would have simply annoyed the Krogan.

But as the xeno's tail struck the Krogan it began to glow with a familiar blue fire. The strike sent the Krogan reeling with pain.

The Asari xeno's entire body began to glow with blue fire, illuminating the entire room.

In a burst of power similar to a Vanguard's biotic charge, the xeno teleported itself onto the Krogan and then proceeded to sink its tail into the Krogan's hump.

He yelled with pain and vainly attempted to pry the bug off of him. As he struggled more of the hive took advantage of his situation.

They jumped onto him, first one, then two, then four.

They began biting with their teeth, slashing with their claws, and stabbing with their tails.

Eventually the Krogan, for all his ferocity, was overwhelmed and buried by the sheer number of enemies.

"Keep together!" ordered Lyreel in an attempt to reestablish a coherent defense.

"We can't hold them!" yelled Klonc as he blasted another bug,

"Everybody back up the stairs, get to the second floor!" ordered Ashley as moved to the stairs. She touched a finger to her earpiece and spoke _"second team, move away from the basement door and retreat to the second floor."_

"_LC they've -*static* -they've broke through the door! -*Static* -trying to hold- *static* -too many! -*static*-out of the damn walls! We…AHHHHHH!"_

"Damn it!" cursed Ashley as the last survivor entered the second floor. The door was immediately shut and sealed.

"Sarge!" said Octavia as she limped over, "Sarge bugs have been flooding up here ever since you scared off those damn Chargers. I've lost almost everybody up here, what the hell is going on?!"

"The front door held but they somehow managed to make their way through the vents while we were concentrated on those big bastards. The first floor is compromised, hold here."

"Jesus Christ we are so dead," cried a marine

"Man up boy!" growled Johnson, "we aren't dead yet and remember you're a leather neck!"

"It's game over! It's game-AH!" the door suddenly shuddered and screeched as something on the other side rammed into it again and again.

"God damn it they just don't quit!" cursed King, "next thing you know they'll be pop through the vents up here too!"

Instead of the vents though, the shutters of the windows were where the hive decided to attack. One window's shutter was suddenly caved in.

Outside a Brute used its massive fists to pound away at the flimsy metal. On other shutters, Spitters hacked large globs of acid onto the shutters. Slowly but surely they would burn their way through.

A marine wielding a flamethrower fired a stream of flame through the growing holes in an effort to ward them off. At that same moment, the Brute succeeded in punching a fist through the shutter and grabbed the marine by the neck.

The woman struggled and slapped at the arm but the Brute hardly notice. Just as the bug was about to snap the marine's neck, there came the sweet sound of singing metal moving through the air.

A blade sliced through the Brute's arm like a ship through water, saving the marine and leaving the Brute's hand on the ground.

"Yahachi! Good timing brother," greeted King,

"Where's Spark?" asked Johnson,

"Still in the security room, it says that-"

The sound of metal being bent and torn interrupted Yahachi. The survivors turned to see that the acid spewing bugs had finally managed to weaken the metal enough to be pried apart.

Now they were making their way in.

Yahachi was the first to move, he became a blur of motion as his katana flashed out. The first Spitter had its head sliced off. The second attempted to attack with its tail only for it to be chopped off then get its belly cut open. The third managed to hack a glob of acid, Yahachi ducked under then sliced through both of the bug's legs. It screamed as it fell to the ground before being silenced by a sword in its brain.

Unfortunately, more of the swarm simply flooded into the building.

The marine who had been saved from having her neck snapped fell to a barrage of acid.

Two colonists were dragged outside for the hive to use.

"Everyone fall back! Fall back to the security room!" ordered Ashley,

What remained of the survivors heeded her words and began making their way to the security room. Ashley herself backpedaled furiously while keeping continuous fire down the hall.

But it seemed that with every bug she shot off the wall another three came to take its place.

"Come on you buggers! Come and get what's coming to you!"

Ashley turned to see Octavia, firing her weapon wildly and holding back the swarm of bugs in another hall. She was buying them time but Ashley also saw that she was getting too far in.

"Octavia!" she called, "Octavia fall back that's an-"

A hiss caught her attention.

Down at the end of the hall, Ashley caught sight of the xeno that had managed to take down one of the Krogan colonists. The one born from an Asari and had somehow developed biotic abilities.

Even though it had no eyes, Ash could tell that it was locked in on her.

The Spectre decided make a preemptive strike and fire on the xeno.

The Asari bug glowed blue and teleported itself to avoid the bullets. It then reappeared on the side of the hall, crawling along the wall and amazing speeds.

Ashley fired again, but the bug teleported onto the other side.

Growling in frustration, Ashley let loose another burst. As expected the bug teleported to avoid, but this time as it reappeared on the ceiling Ashley fired a concussive shot.

This time the bug was hit dead center of its chest and knocked it right off the wall.

Ashley pressed her advantage and fired into its prone form.

The bug screamed as the bullets ripped through its exoskeleton. It squirmed and flailed, then it was still.

With the danger defeated Ashley turned her attention back to Octavia who was still beating the bugs back.

"Come on! Come at me! I'm just a girl!" she yelled, firing her rifle.

"Octavia! Fall back to the security room now!" yelled Ash as she moved herself nearer towards the door,

"Yeah how do you like it motherfuckers?!" Octavia fired another sustained burst, "Oh how about you?! You want some too?!"

The marine fired again, riddling a bug with bullets.

"Oh I'm sorry did that hurt? Have some more!" she screamed firing another stream of bullets,

"Octavia! Get your ass over here right now!" roared Johnson

"Die!" Octavia fired, oblivious to her superiors orders.

"Sybilla! Girl! Get over here!" pleaded King,

"Come on!" taunted Octavia as she reached for another thermal clip, "I'm right here!"

A nearby hiss caught he woman's attention. But before she could face it, pain lanced through her side. She looked down to see a black blade stick through her side, the owner of it just behind her bearing its silver teeth.

Using her rage and adrenaline, Octavia summoned the strength to bash the xeno in the side of the head. The blow made it scream and sent it to the floor. Octavia ripped its tail from her side and then proceeded to viciously stomp on its head with her foot.

As she did another xeno came up from behind and grabbed her by the neck. The marine quickly unholstered her pistol and blindly fired over her shoulder, somehow managing to kill the bug.

Another dropped down on top of her and dragged the woman to the floor. When it attempted to drag her away she kicked it in the nose and filled it full of holes.

Suddenly the floor paneling underneath her popped off and several bony black hands reached out from beneath. They grabbed her ankles and began pulling her in though she kicked and shot at them.

"Get the fuck off of me you motherfuckers!" she screeched,

A new pair of hands grabbed her from behind, wrapping themselves around her waist. It was Ashley, furiously fighting to save her.

King joined in, attempting to pull them both back.

Octavia fired into the hands while cursing up a storm.

"Let go of me! Get off you sons of bitches! Die! Die!" she screamed as she was slowly but surely sinking deeper and deeper into the darkness.

"Come on! Pull harder!" ordered Ashley,

"I'm trying!" yelled King as he strained against the hive,

Try as they might, the swarm was too strong for them. Inch by inch, Octavia sunk beyond their reach. It wasn't long before only her upper torso was visible and the bugs were grabbing her by the neck.

"Get off me! Get off! I am not ending up like Adams!"

"Sybilla! Hold on!" pleaded King, still trying to pull her up, "I'm gonna get you out! I'm gonna!"

Suddenly a member of the hive burst out from the floor paneling and landed on top of King, knocking him away from Octavia and leaving only Ashley to hold on.

"Get the fuck off me!" growled King as the alien snapped its jaws at him.

"Hold on Octavia, I'm gonna get you out!" assured Ash as she tried to pull back.

"L.C-"

"Just hold on! I'm going to get you out! I'm not going to let you die!"

Even as she said that, Ashley felt her grip slipping. Soon her grasp on Octavia's hands would falter. It was only a matter of time, she knew it and Octavia knew it.

The British women looked down into the darkness for the first time and in it she saw a countless number of bugs. If their hive could use so many to take down just one marine, how many more were there?

Octavia wanted to live but not if it meant others would die, even if those others included Ashley.

And so she did the only thing she could to save the others.

She let go.

Her hand slipped out of Ashley's

The swarm dragged her below

And she was consumed by the darkness

"NO!" screamed Ashley, lunging forward in a vain attempt to save Octavia. But she was already gone, Ashley had let another die.

By now King had managed to throw his attacker off and kill it. He had seen Octavia get dragged down and had felt his heart hit rock bottom.

Through sheer willpower he managed to move his feet, grab the Lieutenant Commander and get them both back to the security room.

There Johnson and what was left of the survivors slammed the door shut, trapping them inside the last safe room in the building.

"Seal the door!" ordered the Sergeant to the last two remaining marines. Both came up to the door, activated their omni-torches, and began sealing it up.

"We're in a whole mess or trouble now," said Lyreel, "I should have known they would strike with up all bunched up like this."

"Octavia…damn it girl," murmured King,

Yahachi silently muttered a prayer for his fallen comrade.

"Ma'am? Are you alright?" asked Johnson to Ashley, who was still kneeling on the floor,"ma'am?"

"I'm fine," she assured, though clearly she was not, "just…just give me a moment."

Ashley took a deep breath, held it in, then let it out. She pushed herself off of the ground and picked up her weapon.

"Alright…we…we need to," need to what? Defend this room with only a few bodies? They already tried that once and look where they were now.

It seemed that no matter what they tried against these creatures, they just couldn't win.

You couldn't fight them, you couldn't run from them, you couldn't even hide from them. They were just an unstoppable wave of destruction that swarmed over everything and anything.

They could try to defend this room but how long before they managed to worm their way through a vent? Or maybe bash down the door? Perhaps even burn their way into a wall?

"Spectre Williams," spoke the monotone voice of Spark, "may I suggest a course of action?"

"Sure Spark, what've you got?"

"Might I suggest that we escape down the emergency service hallways?"

It took a moment for Ashley to process what Spark just said, but when she finally did she could only ask, "what?"

"There is an emergency service hallway access point in the back of the security room," repeated Spark, "if my analysis of the building's schematics is correct, then we should be able to use it to escape."

"Escape where?" asked one of the marines, "out there? What difference will that make? They'll just hunt us down and kill us!"

"Shut it marine! We're not dead yet!" growled Johnson,

The marine whimpered as he fell to the ground and curled up into a ball, "I had three weeks left before shore leave. Three weeks man…"

Ashley winced upon seeing the marine break down though she couldn't quite blame him.

"Show us," she ordered,

#

The Geth kneeled down and placed its hand on the wall, at a glance it seemed like nothing was there. But upon further inspection a small part of it was cutout into a square panel that moved when pressure was applied.

Upon moving the panel a small number pad was revealed, the Geth typed in a quick code and pressed enter. The pad let out a small three sequence beep, indicating acceptance of the code.

The Geth then moved slightly to the right where a small handle had popped out from the wall just a bit above the floor. Spark grabbed the handle and pulled up a square section of the wall, revealing a tunnel just large enough for a Krogan to squeeze through.

Johnson took his omni-light and shined it down the tunnel, making a quick sweep with his weapon. He turned back to Ashley and nodded.

"Alright, let's see where this leads and decide what to do from there."

"Agreed," said Johnson "we'd best-"

The door to the room suddenly shuddered as something rammed against it. The metal creaked as it gave way slightly, allowing a hiss from outside to travel in.

"God damn it! They just don't give up!" cursed the Sergeant,

"Every man for himself!" cried one marine as he made a mad dash for the escape tunnel.

Just as he was about to duck in a vent grating popped off from above and fell down right in front of him. A shadow darted out from the ceiling and the man found himself impaled through the chest. He had just enough life left however, to scream as a bug's spine like tail lifted him into the vent.

"Jesus!" cried King,

At that same moment the front door shuddered again. This time it caved in, creating a hole large enough for the swarm to come file in.

Immediately black insect like creatures began to crawl through and search for their prey.

"Everyone, into the tunnel now!" ordered Ashley, "Spark, go first! Lead the way!"

The Geth handed off holding up the door to Johnson and began to crawl through the tunnel, it was followed by Lyreel, then Klonc.

Yahachi and the sole remaining marine held off the growing wave of bugs. The Japanese man, though usually a melee combatant, opted to use his side arm for this battle. With clean precise shots, he dropped his targets with just one bullet each through the head.

When they did manage to get close his sword would come flashing out and easily cut through the aliens exoskeletons.

"Come on you two! Get in there!" ordered Johnson,

Yahachi turned his vision from the battle for a brief moment to acknowledge that order. Just as he did a bug managed to leap through the air, pin the last marine to the ground, and stab its tail into the man's eye.

Yahachi quickly avenged the fallen marine by slicing the bug's head off.

"Yahachi! Come on!" ordered Johnson,

The Japanese man nodded and made his way towards the tunnel. Johnson handed off the door to Ashley and began his own journey inside.

The Spectre ducked under the door and held it up as Yahachi finally arrived. But just as he did a duo of xenos fell down from the above vent.

One lunged at Yahachi and the other fell onto all fours and attempted to attack the vulnerable Spectre.

Yahachi easily side stepped his attacker and brought his sword down low, slicing through the bug's stomach and cutting it in half.

Ashley through up her hands just in time to catch the alien by the maw. It's drool covered teeth lashed out at her as she desperately tried to hold it back. She could have reached for her weapon but in these close quarters she dared not try anything that might cause the creature's acid blood to splatter all over her.

Yahachi was about to come to her aid when another pair of bugs attacked him. The first lashed out at him with its claws.

Yahachi jumped back, avoiding the attack, then swung his blade down. The sword caught the bug on the shoulder and cut down its body, all the way to the waist.

As the Japanese man attempted to pull his sword out from his enemy's corpse the second bug tackled him, causing him to lose his weapon, and pinned him to the wall.

Yahachi just barely managed to keep the xeno away, holding it back at arm's length. It snapped its inner jaws out at him, nearly managing to bite of the tip of his nose. When that didn't work it brought up its bladed tail and attempted to spear him through the eye.

The first thrust he ducked under, the second he threw his head to the side but still managed to get nicked on the temple.

Out of the corner of his eye Yahachi could see the Lieutenant Commander still struggling with her xeno. Unfortunately for all of them, Yahachi could see more of the swarm entering the room and making their way for the escape tunnel.

If they didn't manage to close the entrance to the exit passage soon, the swarm of demonic insects would flood in after the remaining survivors and trap them in an environment where they couldn't properly defend themselves.

Yahachi, on his honor, could not allow his comrades to die while he could do something about it.

With lightning quick movments, the man reached down and grabbed his sidearm. He then took it and pistol whipped his alien in the side of the head.

As it reeled from the blow, Yahachi sighted down the number pad controlling the emergency exit's door and fired off three quick shots.

The number pad sparked and smoked.

Its controls severed, the door immediately began to shut itself. As a result the xeno attacking L.C Williams was slowly cut in half.

The threat to his comrades gone, Yahachi returned to his own predicament. They were safe, but now he was trapped inside this room with the swarm and no means of escape.

Already he could hear the sound of his commanding officer pounding on the other side of the door, yelling for Yahachi to open the door and escape with them.

That was of course impossible now that the controls had been destroyed.

So Yahachi tuned out her shouts and instead focused on the enemies in front of him.

Yanking his sword out from the corpse of his enemy, he turned to face the incoming horde.

Three of the swarm came at him at once.

The first he shot with a cleanly in the head.

The second sliced down from the shoulder down to its ribs and out.

The third he stabbed through the neck then shot twice in the chest.

Then the ground shook and Yahachi saw one of the larger bugs, a Brute, burst through what remained of the front door.

It spotted the Japanese marine and roared loudly.

Like a reckless bull it charged the human at full speeds, intent on crushing him into a bloody pulp.

Yahachi quickly sighted the Brute with his pistol and fired the remainder of its clip into the bug's chest. The bullets struck home but the creature was left undaunted and continued to charge.

Yahachi tossed his firearm away and used both hands to grab his sword.

At the last possible moment, when the Brute finally reached him, the Japaense man spun himself while at the same time side stepping. All the while his sword flashed out and moved with him.

By the time Yahachi came to a stop, so had the Brute.

It took a few more steps after passing the human before falling in half. Its upper half falling one way while its lower half fell the other.

Yahachi let out a breath he'd been holding then gracefully flicked the acidic blood of his weapon.

That's when he realized the cries from inside the emergency passage were still coming.

Ashley was still on the other side, crying for Yahachi to help her pry the door open so that he might come with them. The Japanese man felt a pang of sympathy for the Lieutenant Commander.

To know that someone was going to die while you could do something about it would make any human hold on till the last moment.

Yahachi didn't want to die but given his circumstances, he could accept it.

The rest of the humans though could still live on.

As Ashley continued to pound on the door she suddenly heard something knock back. It was a soft, rhythmic knock from the otherside.

Yahachi pounded the door in three knock intervals.

At any other time it would have meant nothing but right now it was his only means of communicating. Ashley, despite herself, understood what it meant.

With a heavy heart, she gave him a salute he'd never see and crawled after the rest of her team.

Yahachi stood up from kneeling beside the door.

A hiss washed through the room and he turned to see a dozen new members of the hive that had quietly entered the room. They stood before him now, circling around him like a pack of wolves preparing to strike.

Yahachi raised his sword

The insects bared their teeth and screamed their battle cry.

They all leapt at him together, creating a black tide of claws and teeth.

Yahachi ran right at them intent on cleaving that tide in two.

**End**


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Hunted

"Well this is just great!" groaned Cpl. Yun as he stared at the large wall impeding his progress towards freedom from the deadly hive he was currently trapped in.

He had spent an untold amount of time navigating the deadly maze of tunnels underneath the colony while at the same time avoiding any contact with its denizens. He had been successful so far, following the directions of his HUD marker when all else failed.

But now the marker was pushing him to go forward. Unfortunately forward right now was not an option, as strong as his artificial limbs were he couldn't punch through solid wall.

His only option seemed to be to backtrack and attempt to find another way back to the surface, something he wasn't too inclined to do.

_HIIISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS_

Gabriel jumped at the reminder that he was not alone and felt that his reluctance to backtrack was now justified. More than likely the inhabitants of the hive had picked up that there was something besides them in their home and were now tracking it.

"Okay, okay, come on Gabe," he spoke to himself with shallow breaths, "think, how do you get yourself out of this one?"

_HIIISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!_

"Come on! Idea! Right now! Please!" he growled furiously pacing back and forth as though searching for something lost. When he found nothing he angrily kicked his foot into the wall, cursing it for existing. But instead of a solid thump, like he was expecting, something gave way and crumbled beneath his boot.

He kneeled down to examine the area that he had struck and to his surprise, found that a small section of the wall was not as solid as the rest. It was in fact hardened resin like material, similar to the stuff used by the bugs to string up their victims.

Pulling back his fist he punched through the webbing, it shattered and revealed what seemed to be a tunnel. How far it went, Gabriel could not tell. But it was large enough for him to walk through while crouched down or on his hands and knees.

However, he didn't know how much he liked the idea of putting himself in such cramped quarters. If he was attacked he would have few ways to defend himself, at least out here he would be able to better maneuver.

_HIIISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!_

Another one!

This time much closer!

Gabriel decided then that he would take his chances with the tunnel.

With purpose he delved into the darkness and prayed that he wouldn't find anything in it.

###

"Keep up that fire!" ordered a Cerberus Centurion as bullets whistled over the heads of his men. They obeyed and fired their standard issued Harriers at the remaining Alliance hold outs.

They fired back of course but the Cerberus forces suffered no casualties. Instead they retaliated and gunned down two of the marines. At this point it wasn't a fight for control of the ship, now it was a game to see how long the marines would last.

"Haha! Did you see that one bitch I got?" joked one of the Cerberus soldiers, "right through the eye socket!"

"You sure that was you?" asked his comrade,

"Of course it was me!" replied the soldier indignantly,

"Hey! Focus you two!" growled an Engineer "we've still got more of these Alliance dogs to deal with."

"Aw why bother, our reinforcements are coming on board right now. Pretty soon we'll clean them up in seconds."

"They still have guns," argued the Engineer, "they can still shoot us."

"Oh calm down, they're trapped like rats. No way they can fight their way out and no way they can sneak-"

The man's boasting was interrupted by a repetitive metallic thumping that came from the ceiling. All three Cerberus soldiers looked up and saw that the sound was coming from the air ducts.

"They're trying to escape" realized one of the soldiers, "they're trying to escape!"

Immediately all three of them pointed their weapons skyward and opened fire. Bullets pierced the ducts to reach the humans inside.

But still the noises moved along the ceiling until it reached the wall. The Cerberus soldiers in turn began to shoot the air ducts along the wall, unloading entire clips into it.

Then finally, there was silence.

"I think we got them," said one of the soldiers, experimentally tapping the duct.

Suddenly a black spear shot out from the duct and ran the man through the chest. He died quickly, his body went limp but his corpse continued to stand. The spear retracted but did not disappear completely, prevented by the sack of meat still hanging on it.

Once, twice, the spear slammed the body against the wall before it finally dislodged it and vanished. Then the sound of a body crawling through the ducts came again.

"Jesus! What the hell was that?!" asked the Engineer,

"That was one of the XT's! What's one doing on the ship?"

The sound of the xenomorph crawling through the ducts continued.

"Come on! After it!" said the Engineer,

The two followed the sounds of the xenomorph scurrying through the ducts. Eventually the sounds led them to the ship's men's shower room.

They quickly entered, weapons at the ready should the xeno attack them. But they found nothing and that scared them more than if the monster had attacked them outright.

The two Cerberus soldiers turned to each other and both gave a quick nod. They then cautiously stepped into the shower room, split up, and began to search.

Both of them tapped the walls and listened for any sounds of scurrying to try and get an idea of where their prey was.

They believed themselves to be the ones hunting.

But in fact they were the hunted.

The Engineer carelessly stepped onto a shower drain. The floor suddenly exploded out from beneath him. Then covering shot off, metal screamed as it bended, and a pair of clawed hands reached up and grabbed the man by the legs.

Too stunned to act and too terrified to scream, he was dragged into the drain. His compatriot quickly rushed over and stood over the drain himself.

Immediately he raised his weapon and fired into the drain, hoping to kill the alien with a lucky shot. When silence was all that followed, the soldier began to believe that he had indeed killed the creature.

Then he heard the sharp sound of metal being ripped apart. He whipped around just in time to see a massive black creature, resembling a giant insect, leap out of a drain behind him.

The man tried to raise his weapon but was far too slow. The xeno landed, almost gracefully, right in front of him. It then grabbed by the shoulders, peeled its thin black lips back, and revealed its inner set of teeth.

The miniature jaws shot out.

Too close to set off his armor's kinetic sensors, the man's helmet was pierced and he died instantly.

Two more Cerberus soldiers, attracted by the sound of gun fire, entered through the shower's front door. They immediately spotted the xeno holding the still warm corpse of their comrade and opened fire.

Quicker than their triggers, the xeno dropped its kill and leapt onto the ceiling. It then pounced forward and like missile it crashed into one of the soldiers. But rather than finish him off, it turned its attention to the still standing second soldier.

As the Cerberus trooper attempted to sight down the over insect, it whipped itself around and lash out with its tail. The man was knocked right off his feet and into a shower wall.

The xeno then turned its attention back to the soldier below it. Disoriented, the man was helpless as the alien reached down with its claws and ripped out his throat.

The xeno then moved on to the second man. He scrambled for his weapon but the xeno stuck its bladed tail into his stomach then cruelly dragged it up. The soldier had just enough life left to watch his intestines spill out onto the floor before falling lifelessly to the ground.

The alien screeched in victory before disappearing back down the drain to continue hunting the rest of the crew.

###

Captain Vilmos stood near the cockpit of the SSV Salem, overseeing the transportation of the eggs they had recovered from the colony. Each container was carefully carried onto a new ship.

Two to one and the remaining one to the other.

That way should they be followed and destroyed, the purpose of this mission would not be entirely lost.

Vilmos believed that he could see a promotion in the near future after returning back to Omega. On that note it was a real surprise that the station's previous owner, Aria T'loak, had yet to make a move to reclaim it. Perhaps she would try in the near future?

Vilmos shook the thoughts from his head, now wasn't the time to be thinking of that.

Bringing himself back to the present, he caught sight of a soldier rushing up to him. The man saluted and Vilmos returned it.

"Report!"

"Sir, we're pushing the survivors further into their hole. Soon they'll all be dead."

"Excellent," said Vilmos,

"There is one other thing sir,"

"Hmm?"

"We've had reports of something else, something not human, prowling the ship. We've already lost three squads to it sir."

"Has anyone seen this killer?" asked Vilmos, who was suspicious of its identity.

"Yes sir, they've described it as a large humanoid like insect. They say it has a black exoskeleton, a tail with a stinger, and some sort of proboscis like mouth."

Vilmos recognized those characteristics all too well. "It's a xeno, one of the things that wiped out our forces down on the colony."

"Shall I call for squads to hunt it down sir?"

"No, I have a better idea," smiled the Cerberus Captain. He walked over to the CIC interface and opened a channel with the other two Cerberus controlled ships. "Boys an opportunity has just arisen that could prove very helpful to our cause if you're willing to wait around a little longer. Send teams over with capture equipment, heavy duty, and a cage."

#

The survivors or rather what was left of the survivors, were currently making their glorious retreat via the emergency escape tunnel that their resident Geth had managed to discover.

Though the interiors were nearly unbearably hot in fully armor and the air was breathtakingly thin, each and every one of them was thankful for being inside of that tunnel. Anything was better than being back at city hall fighting an enemy that could not be defeated.

They had been crawling on their hands and knees for nearly ten minutes when the end of the tunnel finally came into view.

Spark, who was at the front of the line, popped the hatch open. Upon scanning the outside with its single vision processor and ensuring that there were no hostiles around, it leapt out.

The rest of the survivors followed after.

Ashley exited last and found that the tunnel had allowed them to enter one of the colony's many warehouses. This one in particular was quite large and filled to the brim with shipping containers and crates of various sizes.

Many stacked so high that they reached as high as a two story building and formed the walls of a maze. More importantly it was nice and cool in here, which was a breath of fresh air after being cooped up in a tunnel.

Suddenly the entire building was flooded with low voltage light, Ashley turned to see that Spark had jacked into a console and was now most likely bringing all the systems online.

Sure enough a few seconds later, various machinery came online and began to make a symphony of white noise.

With everyone tired from all the fighting and death, Ashley decided to take count of who was still with them and allow everyone a small reprieve.

Of her squad only Sgt. Johnson, PFC. King, and Spark were left. From the colony, only Lyreel the Turian and Klonc the Krogan were alive. In addition Cpl. Yun was supposedly still in the hive bellow the colony, whether or not he was alive remained in question.

Ashley, weary from this entire ordeal, collapsed against a wall and very nearly fell blacked out right there. The adrenaline of the fight had worn off and in its place was an unbearable lack of energy.

"So," said the flanged voice of Lyreel, bringing Ashley out of her haze, "what's the plan?"

The Spectre sucked in a deep breath, held it, then slowly let it out. Gradually she pushed herself up and composed herself.

"The only thing we can do," she replied, giving her weapon a quick check over, "we can't run, we can't hide, and we can't fight."

She paused and took another deep breath

"There's only one thing we can do. We make our way to the space port and take our chances with a shuttle. Hopefully…hopefully we can stay up in space till the Alliance sends reinforcements or just stay on the surface and wait for Cerberus to leave so we can escape."

Johnson nodded.

Though it was quite clear he would rather stand his ground, he understood the need to warn the Alliance and hopefully prevent another massacre like this.

"Alright then, everyone in agreement?"

"Yes ma'am," said the Sergeant

"We're with you," answered Lyreel for both herself and Klonc

King however, did not announce his agreement with everyone else. Instead he simply stared into the ground under his feet. He stared and he wondered, how deep under had they pulled Octavia? Was she still alive? Was that better than being dead?

The pure thought of her being dragged into their hive

Strung up on a wall

Helpless

Used to breed more of those things

Made him want to fall down

Made him want to stay and make them all pay

A hand touches his shoulder and snaps him out of the haze. He looks up and sees Lt. Williams, his commanding officer.

"King? Are you with us?"

The big man nods, "yes ma'am"

"Alright then, let's start by getting out of this damn building. Then we can start making our way to the space port. If we manage to survive that long, we'll try to find a ship that flies," she announced, "let's get moving before they figure out where we are."

With their patchwork plan together, they began moving through the maze created by the towering walls of crates. All was quiet as they walked, none of them cared to make a sound.

With what they had just been through, with what they had just lost.

Who could truly blame them?

Those who had fought the bugs, the Aliens, were often too busy worrying or their own survival to truly understand their enemy. Darkness was not their greatest weapon, nor was it their tails, claws, or blood. What truly made the Aliens such powerful enemies was their ability to know no fear and to inspire it in others.

The remnants of the Alliance team, hardened soldiers who had fought for their lives on many occasions, knew this fear now.

Spark suddenly halted in its steps.

Ashley who was right behind the synthetic, signaled for everyone to stop. The Geth turned its head, its eye scanning the shipping containers.

"What is it?" asked the Spectre,

"I detected motion five meters from our position but it is now gone," replied the Geth,

The entire group felt a small shiver go down their spines, one thing they had learned was that any unexplained motion was a precursor for chaos.

A full minute passed and nothing happened.

"It was probably nothing," decided Ashley, though she didn't quite believe her own words, "let's keep moving."

In unison the group began moving forward again, though they were now more visible cautious than before.

Johnson stared off to the side and for a brief moment he thought he saw a shadow of movement, "did anyone else see that?"

"See what?" asked Lyreel,

Johnson stared at the same exact spot but saw nothing. He took a quick look around and found no evidence of any other movement.

"Nothing," he finally said, "it was just my imagination."

Spark suddenly came to a halt again and once again started scanning its immediate area. Ashley asked if it detected another pulse of movement, this time three meters away.

The Geth nodded its mechanical head.

Ashley licked her lips and signaled for everyone to keep moving. If it was a bug then staying in a single spot wasn't going to help them.

They continued moving for another five minutes before Spark detected another pulse. This time only two meters away.

Everyone began to scan the surrounding area, their eyes traveling across the walls that surrounded them for any sign of the movement their Geth had detected. But nothing came into view.

No monstrous creature sprang out at them

No menacing hiss moved through the air

The only sound they could hear was their own breathing and the ever present hum of the lights.

"It was nothing," decided Ashley, "maybe just a rat or something."

"I shall run a software diagnosis of my system," added Spark, "perhaps these unexplained occurences are merely the result of corruption created by the planet's arid climate and dust particles."

"So…a glitch?" asked Lyreel,

"Affirmative, I apologize if I caused you any unnecessary anxiety"

"Its okay Spark, lets just-"

The synthetic's chest suddenly burst open and a massive black blade pierced its back. Sparks flew out from the machine's gaping wound, its eye began to flicker, and its body spasmed erratically. Then, slowly, it was lifted off its legs.

"Error! _Error_! **Error! **_**Error!"**_spoke Spark, its voice distorted by damage.

The rest of the survivors, too stunned to do much else beyond watch, followed the machine's body up the wall of crates. Till it came to a stop right next to the face of a familiar old foe that had been harassing them since the moment they stepped foot on the planet.

Ugly

The massive alien hissed at the synthetic impaled on its tail. Then without warning, it ripped Spark off its tail and used both hands to rip the Geth in half. The upper torso was then tossed over Ugly's shoulder whil the lower half was allowed to drop back to the ground.

Lyreel was the first to snap back to her senses,

"Run!" she yelled,

Too late

Ugly, perhaps out of recognition or because she was closest, leapt down from the shipping containers. The Turian didn't even have a chance to move as 2000 pounds of mass came crashing down on her spine, squashing the life out of her instantly.

Then, as if to disgrace its prey, the Alien grabbed the lifeless head of the Turian and ripped it clean off the body.

"Run," whispered Ashley, repeating Lyreel's last words.

"Run!" she said again, more forcefully.

"RUN!" this time as a full on shout.

The other two humans were finally knocked out of their stupor and together they ran into the maze.

The Krogan however stood his ground.

His blood boiled at the loss of his comrades, his Krant, and cried out for revenge. He didn't know if he could win and he didn't care.

He welcomed the blood rage.

With a throaty roar of battle he charged head first like any proud Krogan would do. His weapon boomed loudly but was ineffective against Ugly's tough hide.

When his bullets ran out he discarded the useless weapon and resorted to his hands and head.

Ugly's tail came lashing out, intent on spearing the Krogan through. But Klonc sidestepped the attack and came smashing into the bug's chest.

The two combatants were thrown into a stack of shipping containers that gave way under their enormous weight and velocity.

Klonc brought his head back and smashed down onto Ugly, again and again and again he attacked the monster. But the Alien's hide was too touch, too strong, the Krogan's attacks barely left a dent in the armor.

When a lull came in Klonc's barrage, Ugly took his chance and grabbed the Krogan by the throat. With effort it lifted the reptilian being off its feet.

Klonc flailed helplessly in the air, unable to fight back.

The three humans meanwhile, sprinted faster than they ever had their entire lives. They knew that fighting against that monster was futile. Running was the only option they had right now.

So they dived into the man made maze, hoping to lose the monster and escape.

"Is it behind us?!" asked Ashley as they ran,

Johnson chanced a glance back, "I don't see it!"

"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

The massive form of a Krogan suddenly came flying from the right, smashing through a stack of crates and landing in the path of the three humans. Klonc groaned and feebly attempted to pick himself up.

The unearthly screech of his opponent ripped through their ears as it came thundering after the Krogan.

To Klonc's credit, he did not give up.

He rose back to his feet as the humans fled down a different path.

Then he gave one last battle cry and charged the beast.

It was a valiant charge and a shame that it had to be ended in such a horrendous way.

Ugly's tail struck out and speared Klonc right through his chest. With impressive strength and what seemed almost like sadistic pleasure, Ugly lifted Klonc up to its hideous face.

The Krogan coughed up blood as it stared into the empty eyes of the monster. Its thin lips peeled back, its jaws opened, and its inner teeth were revealed.

In a split second, they came flashing out.

Larger than any normal Alien's inner jaws, the teeth bit through the Krogan's flesh and tore off Klonc's entire face. Ugly swallowed all of it, then tossed the Krogan's body away.

Now for the humans

#

Gabriel had spent by his count, fifteen minutes crawling on his hands and knees through the endless tunnels of the hive. For a person who hated enclosed spaces as much as him, fifteen minutes might as well have been fifteen days.

He was starting to wonder if he was lucky for not running into any of the tunnel's residents or cursed to die roaming tunnels instead of a bar surrounded by beautiful women.

Just as he was starting to get ready to lay down and just die, a spark of light crossed his vision.

He moved his eyes towards the spark and for the briefest moment he thought he saw another human being. Curiosity peaked, he moved after it.

Now he found himself at a fork in the road, or tunnel as it would be. Even worse, his HUD's arrow would only point forward instead of helpfully telling him which way to go.

Absent mindedly he stared down the right path and unexpectedly saw a flash of movement. This time he saw the cause and very nearly couldn't believe his eyes.

"Alison?" it had looked like her though he had only caught a brief glimpse. Eagerly he began moving down the right path, intent on confirming whether or not it had been her.

As he crawled he noticed that the tunnel was getting less dark than before which could only mean one thing: light.

Hope reached his heart and he crawled with a new sense of purpose. Eventually he reached the source of the light: a shaft, a shaft that went directly upwards. Whether it went up to the colony he didn't care, he just wanted out of this stinking hole.

"Alison?! You up there?!" he shouted,

No response

But she must have climbed, reasoned Gabriel. It's the most logical thing to do and Alison was smart enough to know that.

With the light as his guiding beacon he grasped the uneven walls of the shaft and pulled himself up. The good thing about having fake hands was that he didn't need to worry about pain as he grasped any hand hold he could find.

Gradually, he began gaining momentum and moving closer and closer towards the light.

He could almost feel his elation rising with every inch he moved up.

Then suddenly, the light was gone.

Then it was back.

Then it was gone again.

Gabriel became confused; could it not make up its mind?

Now it returned but it was splotchy, stained with shadows. He turned his eyes skyward and his heart dropped into his stomach. He now saw what was blocking his light.

"No way, my luck is not that bad!"

He now knew he had avoided the denizens of the hive for so long only because they'd been out of the house. Now they were coming back. Gabriel could see dozens upon dozens of them crawling back down the shaft, eager to return home. Somehow he didn't believe that they would appreciate finding him there.

On second thought, they'd probably be delighted. He could help them make a new family member.

While Gabriel enjoyed the act of procreating with any species, these aliens weren't his type. Thinking quickly he removed his feet from his foot holds and flattened the palms of his hands against the walls.

Immediately he began dropping back down the shaft

_HIIIIIIIIIIISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!_

Gabriel was soon near the bottom of the shaft, calling upon his biotic powers he slowed his descent to a halt and landed neatly back in the tunnel.

_HIIIIIIIIIIIIISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS !_

The human turned his eyes back up to see that the bugs were not far behind him. They had definitely spotted him and were eager to welcome him into their large family.

No thank you

Quickly he began crawling through the tunnel, he didn't even pause to make sure it was the correct direction. He just knew that he needed to put as much distance as he could between himself and the incoming ocean of highly lethal killing machines.

"God, I bet the others aren't dealing with anything like this."

#

"I bet Yun isn't dealing with anything like this," cursed Johnson as the three humans rushed through the warehouse.

"Did we lose him?" asked Ashley

An ear shattering screech followed by an explosion of smaller crates and the entrance of a massive black form were enough to answer her question.

Ugly moved faster than anything its size had a right to.

It was practically nipping at their heels and gaining.

The humans ran with all their might but still it wasn't enough.

Up ahead Ashley saw a fork in the road, one that couldn't have come at a worse time. With no room to think of a plan, she yelled the first thing that came to her mind.

"Split up! Now!"

Ashley and Johnson went down the left while King went by himself down the right.

Ugly decided to go left.

The two humans ran faster than ever before as the monstrous being gained on them. Now that it was after them Ashley wasn't quite sure what to do next.

They had to find some way to deter the beast or better yet some way to kill it. Bullets were already out of the question, its carapace was simply too strong. Yun seemed to be able to have a chance against it with his biotics but none of them were biotic.

Damn it! This was hopeless!

Her mind working on overtime as she ran, Ashley noticed the hundreds of crates surrounding them. A quick plan formed in her mind and she was even quicker to act on it.

Reaching for her belt, the Spectre unclipped a few grenades and tossed them over her shoulder at the stacks of crates. The explosives detonated soon after and knocked the stacks over like cut down trees.

A great number of them fell on top of Ugly and managed to knock it around a bit but were unable to do any real damage.

In frustration she tossed another grenade, not quite aiming its trajectory this time.

It landed a bit off to the side of Ugly's path but when it exploded he was still caught in the blast. To her surprise, the seemingly invincible Alien screeched as the explosion washed over it.

Ugly actually stumbled as though in pain, it was so surprising that Ashley actually halted her stride to observe.

But despite its apparent pain for the first time, Ugly quickly shook it off and continued its pursuit.

"Johnson, tell me you saw that!"

"The big bad wolf staggering around like someone kicked him in the ball sack after getting hit by a teeth shaker? Yeah, I saw it!"

"We need explosives, lots of explosives!" said Ashley, she unclipped another grenade and tossed it over her shoulder.

This time the explosive landed directly in Ugly's path but it was weary of the weapons now and managed to pull itself just out of the blast radius before continuing after them.

"Shit! That was my last one!" growled Ashley,

"King's got a boatload of explosives on him!" realized Johnson, "we need to hook back up with him!"

Ugly's thumping feet were getting closer now and before long he would over take them. To slow him down for a few more precious seconds, Ashley whipped around and fired a concussive shot at it.

The explosion wasn't as strong as a grenade but it was enough to make Ugly reel with a temporary disorientation.

"Guys!" yelled a familiar voice, "Over here!"

The two turned to see King standing to what looked like the exit.

"Come on!" he yelled as he typed on a console to unlock the door.

The two need no other encouragement and both booked it over to the door. Johnson exited first as soon as the door opened, King followed him out.

Ashley took one last brief moment to fire another concussive shot at Ugly. She then turned and ran at the still open door.

Ugly screeched as it struggled to regain its own senses.

Before exiting, Ashley aimed her rifle onto the console and filled it full of lead. She then dived through the door before it closed completely and locked itself.

"King do you have any breaching charges?" asked an out of breath Ashley,

"What?! Yeah but…don't we want to keep that thing in?"

"Explosives are the only thing that can harm it," a loud thud suddenly came from the door, indicating that Ugly was now in control of its senses again, "we can't just let this thing continue to pick us off. We need to kill it!"

King, realizing what an opportunity this was, nodded.

"Plant a charge on the door, when we're sure it will be caught in the blast. We'll detonate it and blow the son of bitch back to hell."

King nodded again and immediately began placing the charge. The door shuddered and groaned again as Ugly attempted to chase after them. King however was undaunted and didn't even flinch as he continued his work while the constant threat of Ugly was only a few inches away.

"Charge is set!" announced King,

The humans stepped away from the door, giving it a wide berth.

Another shudder and groan as the door was gradually torn apart.

"Call the shot LT and let me blow that son of a bitch to pieces!"

"Hold on! Not yet," ordered Ashley, "we need to make sure we get him, we've only got one shot at this!"

The door groaned again but this time the center of it gave way to Ugly's attacks. The hole was just large enough for the giant Alien to reaches its thin fingers through and begin to pry the doors open.

Soon the door was open just enough for Ugly to place one foot out onto the planet's surface. It then stuck its hideous face through, spotted the humans, and roared.

"Now!"

King hit the detonator

A second later the charge went off and enveloped the monster in fire. Dust thrown up by the explosion washed over Ashley's faceplate and blinded her to the result of their plan. But judging from the sounds Ugly was making, he was definitely in pain.

"Now that's what I'm talking about!" cheered Johnson

"Alright! That was for Octavia you ugly bastard!"

And for a brief moment, the Spectre believed that they had won.

But it was only for a moment.

When another screech broke out and the dust cleared, Ugly stepped out onto the planet. Bruised and wounded, but still very much alive. When it spotted the three puny humans who had caused it so much pain, Ugly it leapt into the air and swooped down upon them.

"RUN!" yelled Ashley,

The marines resumed their fearful sprint, managing to the massive feet that came down where they had just been.

"Jesus H Christ!" cursed Johnson, "what does it take to kill this damn thing!"

#

_HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!_

"God damn it! Leave me the hell alone!" growled Gabriel as he furiously crawled for his life.

Throwing a glance back he immediately saw two drones right on his tail, with their superior mobility in these enclosed spaces it was only a matter of time before they'd catch up with him.

"Piss off!" he yelled, calling upon his biotics and throwing a warp at them.

The biotic missile easily struck the first drone in line and ripped it apart. Gabriel resumed crawling while the remaining drones coldly shoved their hive mate's corpse aside.

He really needed to find the exit, in these damn tunnels he couldn't properly defend himself. Plus this was the bugs home turf, there was probably bugs shit all over the place.

A clawed hand suddenly dug into his heel, knocking him out of his thoughts. Turning around he saw that a bug had managed to grab him and quickly kicked it in the face then followed up with a biotic push.

The blue wave sent the bug crashing into its fellow drones, tangling them in a mass of ebony limbs.

Taking advantage of their temporary chaos, Gabriel sped forward with all haste. He had only managed to gain another few feet when…

_HIIIIIIIISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS_

Gabriel literally felt that one right by his ear. He turned his gaze and out of the corner of his eye he recognized a set of sharp silver teeth.

Bad luck

_HIIIIIIIISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS_

Another, this time on his left ear. He turned his gaze again and spotted another set of teeth just being revealed by black lips.

Really bad luck

Two bugs

Both only centimeters away

Their inner teeth would pierce his skull like a rock through water.

Gabriel acted on instinct.

Both his hands came up and grabbed them by their throats just as their inner jaws came snapping out, both coming up just centimeters short of his face. One of them even managed to smear its thick saliva on his face.

Gabriel cringed, his biotic abilities flared to life and he sent two currents out, one down each arm.

Both bugs were tossed down their respective holes and bowled into their comrades behind them.

With not enough time to appreciate his small victory, Gabriel began crawling again. Much to his surprise he found the exit rather quickly and immediately made a bee line for it.

He reached it quickly and quickly stuck the upper half of his body out, eager to breath fresher air. Then pushed the rest of him out into the hive chamber where he found himself sprawled out on his back, elated with the joy of being out of that claustrophobic death trap.

His joy was quickly turned into fear and adrenaline as a drone suddenly burst out from the tunnel and leapt on top of him. Its claws dug into either side of his head, then its head came down and attempted bite him through the head.

It would have worked too had his hands not grabbed the Alien by the throat and forehead and kept those inner jaws away from his face. Unfortunately, Gabriel had nothing to stop the thing's tail, which he saw being raised up behind its back.

This was going to require some snappy reflexes.

Suddenly

**DOWNLOAD INCOMING! PLEASE WAIT!**

"What the-"

Gabriel's HUD was suddenly flooded with a single large red box with some stupid message and it was blocking his entire field of vision. He could barely see the xeno three inches from his face, let alone the bladed tail ready to spear him through the eye.

**PLEASE WAIT! SYSTEM IS UPDATING YOUR SOFTWARE!**

"I don't care! I don't want to update! Get off my god damn screen-whoa!"

The human saw the tip of the blade a fraction of a second before it came down and lodged itself in the ground where his head had been a few seconds ago.

The Alien dislodged its tail and pulled it back, taking it out of Gabriel's vision.

**UPDATE IN PROGRESS! PLEASE BE PATIENT!**

A bar appeared under the words and slowly started to fill up.

"You have got to be kidding me!"

Gabriel threw his head to the side again, dodging the tail for a second time. If he waited for this damn update to finish then he'd be dead within a minute. He saw the tail being dislodged once again but knew that if he was going to get anywhere, that tail needed to go.

"No you don't!" letting go of the Alien's forehead he grabbed the tail by the base of the blade and lodged right back into the ground.

Unfortunately the Alien was now free to lean its head forward and attempt to use its inner jaws again. Gabriel acted on instinct, he curled up his feet, placed them on the Alien's chest, and kicked them out. The oversized bug went flying off, Gabriel jumped up and began pounding away at the Alien's head with his fists.

The Alien screamed with pain as fist after fist smashed against its blank face.

At this point Yun was almost blindly striking out as the update window had still not decided to go away. He checked the loading bar and saw that it was only half full.

The bug took advantage of the temporary distraction and lashed out with its claws.

Gabriel didn't even see it coming but felt the pain as the sharp edges raked down from jaw all the way to the base of his neck.

"Son of a bitch!" he growled,

Without warning he grabbed the Alien's tail, ripped the blade out from the ground, and shoved it right into its chest. He heard a juicy crunch as the had its heart pierced by its own weapon.

The xeno let out one final screech of pain before finally dying and slouching to the ground.

Gabriel himself slouched to the ground as well, panting hard as the relief of still being alive washed over him. This was definitely not his day.

A strange and sharp smell touched his nostrils and made him cringe. He sniffed the air a few times then looked down at his hand, part of it was sizzling. He must have gotten a bit of the bug's acid blood on his hands during the fight, he hadn't even noticed it, probably never would have since he had no nerves in those limbs.

"Fuck," he muttered,

Reaching into his pocket, he grabbed his carton of cigarettes and checked the stash. Only four left, good enough.

He grabbed one with his mouth and replaced the carton in his pocket, then took out his lighter and lit the stick of tobacco. After taking a few huffs, Gabriel felt his nerves calm and his heart return to a nice rhythmic beat.

Gabe briefly took his cigarette out and exhaled a puff of smoke, the loading bar was almost full. He replaced his cigarette and watched it finally end.

**THANK YOU FOR YOUR PATIENCE! YOUR SOFTWARE IS NOW UP TO DATE!**

"Yeah, thanks a lot you stupid computer," he muttered spitefully,

"_**Greetings**__ Cpl. Yun_"

"Whoa!" Gabe jumped to his feet, "Spark? That you?"

"_Affirmative"_

"Why do you sound…different?"

The Geth's voice seemed to fluctuate between high pitched to bass level deep with every word it said. Almost like some mainstream dub step song.

"_I have __**downloaded**__ my __**program**__ming into __**your**__**headwear's**__ system. __**Unfortu**__nately the __**system **__was never d__**esign**__ed to hold __**an A.I**__"_

"Uh…why did you download yourself into my new toy?"

"_My __**platform**__ was des__**troyed**__ in an encounter with __**the xenomorph**__ designated: __**Ugly**__."_

"Destroyed? Did you say destroyed?"

"_Affirmative"_

"Then that means…oh shit! Beautiful! Sarge! The others!" without much thought, Gabriel immediately dived back into the tunnels and resumed his mission to get back to the surface.

"Hold on Beautiful! Knight in shining armor coming right up!"

#

Inhuman screeches chorused from inside the shuttle bay.

The Cerberus capture team had their quarry cornered, literally. The Alien was now striking out at them from a corner of the room. Lashing out at them with hits claws and tail, it had already killed one of them and injured another two.

Nothing could be done about the deceased but the two injured had simply slapped a bit of medi-gel on and gotten back into the field.

Currently three of the team was prodding at the thing with electric spears. Every time it lashed out they would lash back. Two of the team bringing up the back were holding the capture equipment, one had a lasso spear and another had a net gun.

The lasso spear was basically a spear with a rope loop at the end which the user would attempt to get around the animal's neck. Here they would be lucky to loop a limb, keeping it immobilized long enough for the net gun to fire.

The prodders closed in, backing the Alien further and further into its corner.

"Come on you ugly son of a bitch!" whispered one of the prodders,

"To drive it too far, we don't' want it climbing the walls," reminded another,

"Wait for it to strike, then try to loop its wrist," ordered the third,

The first jabbed the Alien in the shoulder, causing it to hiss. When it lashed out the second jabbed it in the stomach, making it recoil. The third gave it an extended shock with his spear, the Alien screamed and recklessly retaliated with a full on charge.

All three prodders worked in unison and struck the Alien with 600 volts of combined electricity. The Alien became temporarily stunned and the trooper with the lasso spear saw his chance and looped grabbed the bug's neck with the noose.

Upon making it secure he signaled to the trooper with the net gun.

The trooper fired and the Alien was caught within a net made of powerful thick wires.

"Bring up the cage! Bring up the cage!"

Two Engineers rolled the cage in while the bearer of the lasso spear attempted to guide the trapped alien towards it. But the thing was crazy strong and nearly threw him around with its violently thrashing. Three from the capture team grabbed the ends of the net and started dragging the prized catch towards the cage.

It struggled harder but in the end it was futile and it found itself behind steel bars.

#

Captain Vilmos paced back and forth on the deck of the CIC, awaiting the report from the capture squad. He was ordinarily a patient man but the prospect of capturing a live specimen was just too good for him to keep his composure. He would have joined the capture team himself if he hadn't remembered that his skills lay in killing and not capture.

"Sir!" a trooper suddenly ran up to him, "Sir! Report from the capture squad!"

Vilmos gave him his undivided attention.

"They've done it sir, the specimen is in custody and awaiting transport."

Vilmos smiled, "good, good! This is a great day men! We've come one step further! One step further towards ensuring humanity's dominance!"

"Ooorah!" cheered the troopers on deck,

BEEP!BEEP!BEEP!

"Uh…incoming call sir,"

"Who's it from?" asked Vilmos,

"Unknown sir,"

Intrigued, Vilmos accepted the call.

"This is Commander Jane Shepard of the SSV Normandy, hailing the SSV Salem. If there is anyone aboard, please respond."

**End**

**A/N**

**Oh my god it has been a long time!**

**So yeah, apologies as usual. But I have a job now and making money happens to be more important than my writing, sorry. But I give you all my word, the story will be finished.**

**For those of you who haven't read my story Predators: Variety of Prey, I uploaded a chapter on that story explaining my intentions for the future. So if nothing else, get over there and check out the last chapter so that I don't have to retype it here.**

**Also, yeah, Commander Shepard is in the house!**

**I wanted her to be a bit more of a supporting character in this story than a full on player. That's why she's only appeared now.**

**In any case, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and keep a look out for the next one, cause in that one…epic stuff is going to happen!**

**So yeah, please leave a review, favorite, or follow, I really appreciate it.**

**Bye bye**


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